* WTO tells services group Doha deal within reach
* Ex-USTR outlines other trade option for services
* EU says need to build on Doha progress so far
WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - World trade talks, although slow moving, offer the best hope of expanding global markets for finance, shipping and other big service sectors, the head of the World Trade Organization said on Wednesday.
"I understand that many of you would be frustrated by the slow pace of the Doha round and by the fact that the fate of services negotiations is linked to other areas under negotiation," WTO Director General Pascal Lamy said in a speech at the Global Services Summit.
"But it would be disingenuous to believe that services liberalization would be easier outside the Doha round," Lamy said, adding he thought it was possible to finish the nearly eight-year-old trade round in 2010 as the Group of 20 leaders have recently committed to do.
Services such as banking, shipping and telecoms account for upward of 75 percent of rich economies and a majority and growing share of many developing countries. But they still account for less than 20 percent of world trade.
The slow pace of the Doha round, and the intense focus on agriculture and manufacturing issues in those talks, recently has prompted U.S. service companies to look at other initiatives for expanding international trade.
Former U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky on Tuesday outlined several options in a speech at the Coalition of Service Industries meeting, including the negotiation of a services-only free trade agreement between the United States, the European Union and Japan.
She also suggested "sectoral" agreements, such as one covering services offered on the Internet, where a critical mass of countries would agree first to liberalize trade and invite others to join later.
BIG TRADE-OFFS NEEDED, LAMY SAYS
Lamy argued it would be harder to persuade big emerging markets such as China and Brazil to further open their financial and environmental services markets outside of a broad negotiations where those countries could expect to make gains in other areas, such as agriculture and manufacturing.
India and others also would find it difficult to convince the United States and the European Union to provide more temporary entry visas for developing country software engineers and other professionals outside of a global trade round, he said.
"That is why I believe that it is worth throwing your weight behind a Doha services deal, a big part of which is already on the table," Lamy said.
Although agriculture and manufacturing have dominated the the Doha talks so far, Lamy assured the service industries audience there would not a be a final Doha deal without "a substantial services package."
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said on Tuesday that major emerging countries had to make better offers to open their services market for there to be a Doha deal.
The United States also wants a clearer view of what new market openings developing countries would make in agriculture and manufacturing before agreeing on a proposed set of "modalities" for cutting tariffs and farm subsidies.
The EU believes negotiators should build on what they have achieved already on agriculture and industrial goods while focusing more attention on services, EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton told Reuters in an email.
"We should engage in a horizontal process to clarify the outstanding issues, specifically on services. Only then we can get a better understanding of what the final deal will look like," Ashton said. (Reporting by Doug Palmer, editing by Jackie Frank)