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HANOI - Cabinet ministers from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum began talks on Wednesday seeking ways to revive comatose global trade talks and get their own Pacific rim free trade area off the drawing board.

APEC foreign and trade ministers convened at Hanoi's spanking new, German-designed US$270 million National Convention Centre in a modern Hanoi suburb for Vietnam's international coming-out party.

Officials meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Hanoi November 15, 2006. Cabinet ministers from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum began talks on Wednesday seeking ways to revive comatose global trade talks and get their own Pacific rim free trade area off the drawing board. [Reuters]

But the annual extravaganza that will culminate in Sunday's Leaders' Summit began on a sour note after the US Congress failed to pass legislation normalising trade ties with Vietnam, America's old Cold War foe.

House Republican leaders had hoped to give Bush a strong send-off to Hanoi by approving the bill, the final step in normalising trade relations between the former war enemies but it failed again on Tuesday, after being turned down the day before.

Officials prepared an agenda earlier this week that includes reviving the Doha round of global trade talks, which collapsed in July amid clashes over subsidies and tariffs for farm goods.

They have also prepared a "Hanoi Action Plan" to implement a free trade and investment pact among APEC members that was first articulated at the Bogor, Indonesia, meeting in 1994.

However, the vision of a vast free trade area along the Pacific rim has lost considerable momentum to a plethora of mini-deals -- at least 50 FTAs have been agreed or are under discussion among countries represented at APEC, experts say.

PROLIFERATION OF MINI-PACTS

Business leaders, who annually prepare recommendations for the APEC summit, urged speedier progress towards the Asia-Pacific free trade area to counter the proliferation of mini-pacts that are adding costs and complexity to doing business in the region.

The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) also urged leaders of the 21 Pacific rim economies meeting in Hanoi to take stronger steps to curb trade in pirated goods and develop better plans to deal with pandemics such as bird flu.

APEC says its members account for nearly half of global trade, 40 percent of the world's population and 56 percent of the world's gross domestic product.

While it remains too early to say what will come out of this week's talks, the United States wants a strong APEC statement to "help reinvigorate the Doha round", Deputy US Trade Representative Karan Bhatia told Reuters in Washington.

Some trade experts believe APEC leaders could give a much-needed jolt to the nearly dead Doha round of world trade talks by promoting a regional free trade zone.

US, Japanese and South Korean envoys to talks aimed at getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme were due to meet on the sidelines of the APEC meeting on Wednesday to discuss an early December resumption of the stalled negotiations.

"I think we will try to use the next few weeks to be very busy and maybe begin the talks sometime in early December, probably," US envoy Christopher Hill said in Hanoi.

North Korea, which conducted a nuclear test last month, has boycotted the talks involving the United States, the two Koreas, Japan, Russia, China since last year.

APEC ministers will also consider adopting a raft of counter-terrorism measures, including ways to upgrade airport and seaport security, secure food against deliberate contamination, and sharing information about avian flu and other pandemics.