* Doha Round talks expected to accelerate toward end-2009
* Trade ministers to discuss prospects in Paris next week
* Negotiators in Geneva agree to tackle tricky farm issues
By Laura MacInnis
GENEVA, June 18 (Reuters) - Diplomats from 153 countries negotiating a global free trade pact agreed on Thursday to try to settle their differences over food exports, riding the wave of high-level calls to wrap up the long-sought Doha Round pact.
David Walker, New Zealand's ambassador to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), who steers its negotiations on agricultural goods, called pledges from the United States, European Union, India and others to seek a conclusion of the 7-1/2-year-old talks "very much music to my ears."
"We should be looking now to move expeditiously with some work on outstanding gaps and pending technical issues," he told journalists at the WTO's Geneva headquarters after a meeting with the full membership on the state of the talks.
Walker said that a ministerial meeting earlier this month in Bali, Indonesia, of key agricultural exporting nations had given fresh impetus to the Doha Round talks, which were launched in November 2001 and have been largely stalled since last year.
A meeting of trade ministers next week in Paris, on the sidelines of a conference of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), should inject even more political momentum to the drive to conclude the deal, which could help steady the troubled world economy, Walker said.
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That Paris meeting is also expected to witness a series of bilateral talks between top trade officials including U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton and India's new trade minister Anand Sharma.
Roberto Azevedo, Brazil's ambassador to the WTO, told reporters in Geneva that ministers have already been in regular contact over the phone, and that the Paris meeting could be usefl to clarify the remaining obstacles to a Doha deal.
"It is a further opportunity to talk, interact, see what is on people's minds," he said after the negotiating session. And India's WTO ambassador, Ujal Singh Bhatia, said his government would also discuss the idea of hosting a "mini-ministerial" meeting in Delhi in September to sustain more high-level talks.
"Hopefully when everybody meets in Paris will will have some clarity," he said.
Diplomats present at the Thursday WTO meeting, which was closed to the press, said that several countries including the United States and Switzerland called for a prompt conclusion of the Doha Round to buoy commerce and steady the global economy.
Both rich and poor members stressed the need to intensify work before the traditional summer break in August, when negotiations stop, to tee up a push for a Doha Round deal spanning farm products, manufactured goods and cross-border services later this year.
The agricultural topics to be tackled between now and then include details of how tariff and subsidy cuts would apply in sensitive industries and sectors, such as sugar, bananas, cotton and tropical products, diplomats said. Countries must also decide how detailed information about tariffs, subsidies, and trade barriers would be shared under a Doha accord.