The credibility of the World Trade Organization (WTO) will be under threat if ministers of the organization's members fail to reach agreement at their meeting next week in Hong Kong, the host city's commerce and trade chief said on Thursday.

"Another failure is unthinkable and would come pretty close to destroying the WTO's credibility for years to come," said John Tsang, secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

"And the fallout from that would mean increasing bilateralism in world trade deals, the only result of which would be further imbalance between rich and poor," he said at a joint Chambers of Commerce luncheon.

Tsang, who will be chairing the WTO meeting from Dec. 13 to Dec. 18, urged WTO member economies to exercise their collective responsibility and political will to make the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference a success.

Ministers from 148 WTO member economies will meet in Hong Kong to draw an accord of their "Doha Round" talks, which was started in 2001 and aimed at establishing a more fair world system that would free global trade and benefit the developing countries.

However, WTO members such as the United States, the European Union, Brazil and India have earlier made it clear that it is difficult to make concession on the most-disputed topic of cutting down agriculture subsidy and lifting tariff for farm products.

A more possible solution for the disputes is to keep the "Doha Round" talks going and to draw the accord at the next time, while ministers at the Hong Kong meeting to work out a right time for it.

Calling himself an "honest broker," Tsang hoped ministers would reach agreement on other less disputed issues such as poverty reduction at the coming meeting.

A World Bank report estimates that a successful Doha Development Round could annually add 300 billion US dollars to the global economy over the next decade to the year 2015.

It is also expected to bring 140 million people living on less than two US dollars a day out of their misery.