"You come from Asia and are the first official from a developing country to head WTO. We are proud of this," said Zhu during a brief meeting with Supachai.

Supachai, a former Thai deputy premier, took over last weekend as WTO director-general from former New Zealand Prime Minister Mike Moore.

Supachai will be faced arduous tasks as new round of multilateral trade negotiation has just been launched, Zhu said.

"China will do its utmost to back your work," he promised.

In a bid to honor its WTO obligations and commitments, China, after its entry into the organization late last year, has finished sorting out relevant laws and regulations, trying to make them tally with the WTO rules, according to the Chinese premier.

"We have also reduced China's tariff level by three percentage points," said Zhu, who was participating in the Johannesburg Earth Summit.

China's admission to the WTO constitutes both opportunities and challenges, Zhu said, adding that China will surmount overall difficulties and fulfill its obligations in line with its position.

"We mean what we say," said Zhu.

For his part, Supachai admitted the new round of trade talks made little headway as it was just launched.

As long as the countries concerned realize their commitment to development goals, the Doha agenda, adopted last November, would become a development agenda worth of the name, said the new WTO boss.

Supachai said China's accession to the WTO was very important for the possible progress of new round of trade talks, adding that he hoped China will continue to play its role.

Supachai also appreciated China's implementation of the WTO obligations nearly a year after its entry into the global economic body.

( September 5, 2002)