LONDON, April 1 (Reuters) - Britain is pressing the United States to clarify where it stands on global trade talks, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday.
Speaking on the eve of a key summit to tackle the global financial crisis, Brown said U.S. President Barack Obama's new administration had asked for time "in the next few weeks" to review its position on the stalled Doha trade round.
"We've got to understand that they will want to look at their position but I am hopeful, and I am pressing them, as I did when I talked to President Obama on the phone yesterday ... that the World Trade Organisation needs an answer and we need to move forward," Brown told parliament.
Britain was trying to achieve agreement at Thursday's G20 summit on a timetable for a Doha agreement, but the U.S. request for time to consider its position was "a barrier to getting an agreement immediately," Brown said.
Top U.S. and European trade officials pledged in March to try to reach a deal in the world trade talks "as soon as possible" but set no deadline for resolving remaining issues.
French economy minister Christine Lagarde also told Reuters on Tuesday that the Doha round may need to be reworked.
During last year's election campaign, Obama tapped into anti-trade sentiment in the United States by promising to seek changes in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to strengthen its protections for workers and the environment.
Since taking office, Obama has said he wants to modify NAFTA without disrupting trade.
Obama's chief trade negotiator, Ron Kirk, said at his swearing-in ceremony on March 20 that the United States would not retreat from the global marketplace but must address the concerns of American workers who believe that trade hurts them.
Negotiators came close to a deal on Doha last year and many countries are eager to finish the talks based on texts proposed by WTO negotiating chairmen in December.
Brown said Britain had pushed very hard in recent months to get a world trade deal.
Outstanding problems were that India wanted assurances about a mechanism to protect itself from any surge in imports while the United States wanted assurances that agreements on different sectors would be in line with the overall agreement, Brown said.
Brown also defended the decision Britain took when he was finance minister in 1999 to sell a large portion of its gold holdings at a time when gold was worth a fraction of the $920 an ounce it fetches today.
"This was a sale agreed with banks around the world who all wanted to diversify out of gold ... We bought euros and they've gone up in value," Brown said.
The British pound fell sharply in value against the euro in recent months as the financial crisis tightened its grip. (Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Patrick Graham)