* USTR Kirk meets WTO chief Lamy on listening trade tour
* Kirk holds new conference 0800 GMT Wednesday
* Working on trade review, big speech on Monday
By Jonathan Lynn
GENEVA, May 12 (Reuters) - New U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk held talks on Tuesday with the head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as part of his visit to Geneva to hear the views of America's trading partners.
Kirk is due to hold a news conference on Wednesday at 0800 GMT, and neither he nor WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy were willing to comment to reporters after the talks.
But the rapport between the former Dallas mayor and the ascetic Frenchman was clearly good as Lamy joked with Kirk and pointed out murals of the heroes of labour in the WTO's lakeside headquarters.
President Barack Obama's administration is conducting a review of trade policy, and Kirk's meetings will feed into that.
Kirk has met WTO ambassadors from Latin American, Caribbean, African and least developed countries, and the chairmen of the various negotiating groups in the WTO's long-running Doha round. Later on Wednesday he has dinner with Catherine Ashton, trade chief of America's biggest trading partner, the European Union.
Neither Obama nor Kirk have set a deadline to complete the trade review, but what is billed as a major speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington on Monday will provide an opportunity for Kirk to lay out his first thoughts.
The visit by Kirk -- a seasoned politician good at managing relationships rather than a policy wonk -- to listen to various ambassadors has been much appreciated, trade experts said.
"The fact that a USTR -- the trade minister of a very important country -- comes here to talk to ambassadors plays well," said one.
NEED FOR TRADE ACTION
The need for action to revive U.S. trade was underlined on Wednesday with news that U.S. exports in the first quarter were 17 percent lower than a year earlier, reflecting the impact of the economic crisis on U.S. export markets.
"In order to ensure a speedy revival of the U.S. and global economies, it is imperative that we work with our trading partners to further open markets as well as working with members of Congress and stakeholders on new and pending free trade agreements in order to expand the free flow of trade," Kirk said in a statement on the data.
WTO members launched the Doha round in late 2001 to help developing countries prosper through trade.
But U.S. negotiators will need to sell any deal at home, and so must be able to point to new opportunities for American businesses. U.S. diplomats and lobbyists say that this comes down to big emerging countries such as Brazil, China and India opening up their markets to more competition.
That has led some U.S. diplomats to back an idea floated by Canada in which WTO members would drop the current focus in the Doha talks on securing an outline deal setting out the formulas for tariff and subsidy cuts and move straight on to negotiating tariff cuts and other concessions bilaterally.
That would quickly allow members "to see what they are getting" breaking the deadlock, said one business source.
Developing countries are likely to be wary of this approach for fear it will result in the United States and other powerful countries strong-arming them into a deal instead of the WTO's normal all-or-nothing consensus process.
But countries such as Brazil and China, which have much to gain from a Doha deal, may be prepared to consider it in the end if it brings the United States on board.