* Opening up trade can promote growth -- U.S. trade chief
* Enforcement of existing trade deals important
* Not all partners accepted U.S. call for bilateral talks
* Doha talks should move beyond "obsessive focus" on farming
(Adds background, detail, quotes)
By Jonathan Lynn
GENEVA, Nov 30 (Reuters) - This week's World Trade Organisation conference is an opportunity to stress the role that opening up trade can play in economic growth, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said on Monday.
"It's an important opportunity for us to reaffirm the valuable role that liberalising trade around the globe has in sustaining and promoting growth," he told Reuters.
Many Americans, including unions and other supporters of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party, fear trade liberalisation can lead to jobs being lost abroad.
But Kirk emphasised that enforcement of existing trade deals was also part of the U.S. administration's strategy for creating employment.
"Enforcement is just one element of us delivering on job-creating, market-access opportunities that we promised Americans when we entered many of those trade agreements," he said in an interview.
Kirk said the WTO's long-running Doha round to open up trade had been transformed over the past six months by Washington's insistence that members should negotiate through one-on-one contacts as well as in the entire 153-member group, an approach that was now widely accepted.
Not all of the major emerging economies that the United States sees as key trade partners accepted Washington's invitation for bilateral negotiations, he said, but declined to identify them or discuss the contacts, noting that was where the tough give-and-take of negotiations took place.
Asked whether the United States had held bilateral negotiations on Doha with China, Kirk said:
"We have had a number of meetings with some countries, and there are some that are yet to come to the table."
Kirk said that engagement in the talks by India -- which hosted a meeting to try and advance the eight-year-old negotiations in September -- had improved the atmosphere.
India, Brazil and other developing countries called on Sunday for an early and successful Doha deal, focusing on agriculture, in particular the reduction of farm subsidies paid by rich countries.
But Kirk said it was important to get away from an "obsessive focus" on agriculture and manufacturing, and start negotiating now on freeing up trade in services, and examining trade rules, for instance those governing unfair imports. ((For a story on the WTO talks click on [ID:nGEE5AT0LI]))
(Editing by Robin Pomeroy) ((jonathan.lynn@reuters.com; +41 22 733 3831; Reuters Messaging: jonathan.lynn.reuters.com@reuters.net ))