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WTO meet may be moved to Singapore

The World Trade Organisation will move the venue of next month's ministerial meeting -- to be held from November 9-13 -- from Doha, Qatar, to Singapore due to security concerns, a Japanese news agency reported on Wednesday.

Quoting anonymous sources at the Japanese foreign ministry Kyodo News agency said WTO Director General Mike Moore will visit Qatar to inform the Qatari government of the plan.

Japan has already approached Qatar about the proposed venue change the sources were quoted as saying.

Earlier in the day at the Economic Editor's Conference in New Delhi, India's Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran said, ''The ministerial meeting will be there. Whether it will be at Doha is doubtful.''

Commerce secretary Prabir Sengupta also expressed similar doubts.

''It is the General Council of WTO, which has to take a decision on the ministerial meeting. But, there are apprehensions,'' Sengupta told reporters.

Qatar's ambassador to the World Trade Organisation, however, insisted on Tuesday that his country was committed to hosting the key ministerial meeting next month despite strong suggestions that it would be moved.

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