"I believe Russian accession to the WTO before the end of this year is doable," Lamy told a news conference on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum after a meeting of 24 trade ministers in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said the country — the largest economy outside the WTO — hopes to join the 153-member trade body in 2011 after 17 years of negotiations.

"Doable does not mean done but obviously Prime Minister Putin and (President Dmitry) Medvedev the last year have been pushing on the gas pedal and as a result of that the process has been moving on very substantially," Lamy said.

Russia cleared one major hurdle to joining the body in December when the European Union — Moscow's biggest trading partner — endorsed its bid largely thanks to Moscow's commitments to phasing out export tariffs on timber.

"We know we still have a few problems to solve...," Lamy said.

The World Bank has estimated WTO entry could increase the size of Russia's $1.2 trillion economy by as much as 3.3 percent in the medium term and 11 percent in the long term.

US Trade Rep. Ron Kirk told Reuters that negotiations had been going spectacularly well and said President Barack Obama was keen to see Russia join the WTO.

"We have resolved 95 percent-plus of our outstanding issues in terms of Russia's accession," Kirk said.

Among the issues Russia still has to resolve with its partners are farm subsidies, treatment of state-owned companies, and intellectual property.

Under WTO rules every member has an effective veto on accessions and so a candidate for membership must negotiate bilaterally with any country that wants it, as well as a broader working group of members set up to handle each accession.

The discussions had now moved to the broader working group — where another round of negotiations took place this week — and Kirk said he believed Russia's bilateral talks with other countries were also making progress.