May 20 (Reuters) - A visit this month to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk has improved the atmosphere of the WTO's long-running Doha round.
Negotiators think it would be premature to call ministers together in July to clinch a deal -- as happened, unsuccessfully, for the three previous years.
But trade ministers and other leaders will have a number of opportunities in the coming months to negotiate the Doha round on the sidelines of a series of international meetings.
* Cairns Group: BALI, Indonesia, June 7-9 -- Meeting of the Cairns Group of 19 rich and poor agricultural exporters, chaired by Australia and including Brazil. The group has also invited all the other major trade players -- India, China, the United States, the European Union and South Africa -- plus WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy.
* OECD: PARIS, June 24-26 -- Annual meeting of ministers of the Organisation for Co-operation and Development (OECD), the think-tank for rich countries. Traditionally has an afternoon of trade negotiations hosted by Australia.
* G8: L'AQUILA, Italy, July 8-10 -- Annual summit of the seven biggest economies plus Russia. Besides moving the summit to the site of an earthquake disaster last month, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has invited several other countries, creating in effect a kind of unscheduled G20 summit. It will give leaders of rich and poor countries a chance to consider their previous pledges to reach a speedy conclusion on Doha.
* APEC: SINGAPORE, Nov 14-15 -- annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC), which groups 21 economies accounting for nearly half of world trade.
* WTO: GENEVA, Nov 30-Dec 2 (time and place to be confirmed) -- Ministerial conference of the WTO, supposed to be held every two years but which has not taken place since December 2005 for fear it would be hijacked by the Doha talks. WTO chief Pascal Lamy says this one will be "banal", focusing on non-Doha issues, and even some unbanal topics like the future of the WTO. But it will be hard to stop ministers discussing Doha on the fringes. (For a related story on the Doha talks, click on [ID:nLK965027]) (Compiled by Jonathan Lynn; Editing by Jon Boyle)