Regional trade deals are gaining impetus while the WTO's Doha Round has stalled. WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said he was monitoring the progress of regional deals to make sure there was political momentum left for Doha.

"As long as it doesn't divert political energy, it's fine," he told Reuters when asked about the Asia-Pacific trade pacts.

"But this is something which we need to watch. The capacity of people to negotiate is not unlimited — there is a capacity problem," Lamy said on the sidelines of a meeting of trade ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Japan.

"I am concerned. I am watching this carefully because we know that we need a quantum of political energy in these trade issues and we need a large part of that to conclude the round."

The Doha Round was launched in 2001 to correct some of the imbalances in the global trading system and help poor countries prosper through trade.

Under a current draft deal, rich countries would lift barriers to their food markets and cut trade-distorting farm subsidies while developing countries, excluding the poorest, would open their markets to more products and services.

However, agreement on an overall package has proved elusive, with the United States arguing that big emerging economies such as Brazil, China and India should do more to facilitate a deal.

Trade ministers of the 21-member APEC group, meeting in northern Japan, discussed the goals of regional trade as well as the stalled Doha discussions.

Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama said there was a sense of urgency to push forward the Doha negotiations.

However, Michael Punke, the US representative at the WTO, said he did not sense a substantive move.

"I think there's still some question about whether there is a willingness on a part of all parties to engage in negotiations," he told Reuters. "The bottom line is that there is a lot of hard work ahead of us."

The WTO has forecast world trade will expand by 9.5 percent this year after falling by 12.2 percent in 2009.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's economics minister said on Saturday that as a WTO member, Taiwan has the right to seek free trade deals with many partners, a move China opposes as the two work on a trade pact.

The spat between Beijing and Taipei over whether Taiwan can pursue free trade agreements with governments besides China poses a risk to a trade pact between the two sides under negotiations that could mark a quantum shift in its ties.

"Pursuing EPAs and FTAs is a part of rights as a WTO member. Taiwan, of course, is a member and has these rights," Economics Minister Shih Yen-shiang told Reuters, referring to Economic Partnership Agreements and Free Trade Agreement.

"We would like to do our best and continue EPA and FTA negotiations with our main trading partners," he said.

Some $109 billion worth of products a year flow across the Taiwan Strait and while the pact will slash tariffs on hundreds of these goods, it has split Taiwan between those who see its $390-billion economy benefiting from more access to China's markets and those who fear over-reliance on its political rival.

While many expect the pact, called economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), to be signed in June, Shih declined to say if that would be the case.

"Of course, both sides have expected to see difficulties and obstacles in ECFA," he said. "We are trying to sign this as soon as possible."

Taiwan officials have said they expect the ECFA to open doors to FTAs with Japan, the United States and Southeast Asian nations.

They had already started discussion with foreign governments and two in the Asia-Pacific have said they were interested, the premier told Reuters last month.