NEW DELHI, September 5 (AFP) – US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Friday the global financial crisis had created ''a real imperative'' to conclude a new global free-trade agreement.

But Kirk, attending a world trade ministerial meeting in New Delhi this week, said there was a lot of hard work to be done to narrow differences on issues such as farm subsidies, market access and tariffs on industrial goods, before clinching a deal.

The financial crisis ''creates a real imperative, a real momentum for us to move forward'' on the Doha free trade accord, he told reporters at the close of the day's ministerial level talks in the Indian capital.

President Barack Obama's top trade envoy said the United States believed bilateral and multilateral discussions were needed for agreement in the eight-year-old World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha round, which has been dogged by failure.

He declined to reaffirm 2010 as the deadline for concluding the trade deal, saying that ''substance will drive this process, not setting a deadline and timeline.''

''The toughest part of a marathon is the last two miles, there is a lot of hard work to be done,'' he said.

Wealthy nations including the United States and emerging nations agreed at a summit in July to try to conclude the Doha Development Round in 2010.

Ministers agreed here Friday to resume high-level talks in Geneva on September 14 in a move hailed as a ''breakthrough'' by Indian Trade Minister Anand Sharma.

Kirk praised India for taking the initiative to host the meeting, which was aimed at setting out a roadmap for concluding the Doha round that seeks to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and boost world commerce.

Obama has joined other world leaders in calling for a successful conclusion of the Doha talks, but analysts say he faces pressure from domestic industry groups who are likely to seek protection.

Since he came to office in January, Obama has avoided any showdown with labor groups who have wide influence in his Democratic Party and who are generally sceptical about free-trade agreements.

The United States believes WTO members must work hard to fill in the remaining gaps to clinch a Doha deal, not reopen what has been agreed so far, the top US trade official said on Friday.

US Trade Representative Ron Kirk dismissed as misplaced widely voiced fears – by Brazil and the European Union among others – that Washington wanted to unravel what has been painfully negotiated over nearly eight years.

''I think a lot of this has been much ado about nothing,'' he told Reuters.

Kirk was speaking in New Delhi where India has invited key trade ministers to discuss how to finish the Doha round next year as urged by political leaders.

The ministers want to find a way to inject momentum into the faltering negotiations in Geneva on the Doha round, launched in late 2001 to help developing countries prosper by opening up world trade, rather than negotiate specific issues themselves.

Ministers agree that the basis for completing the talks, which will cut tariffs and subsidies in farm and industrial goods and open up services like banking and telecoms, are negotiating texts drafted in December after an abortive round of negotiations last year. But Kirk said those texts were still full of blanks, where the WTO's 153 members had not yet found common ground.

''Obviously we've got to put some meat on the bones in that case. It has never been our argument that we should start all over again or reopen them, but we have to have some idea of what those gaps and blanks are,'' he said.

Kirk said he was wary of stating that the deal could be clinched by 2010 as the talks have already missed many deadlines.

But it was useful to set a stretch goal of 2010 if that prompted members to start work immediately on filling in the gaps and working together one-to-one to understand each other's requirements to bring bargaining to a conclusion.