GENEVA, Oct. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- World merchandise exports are expected to grow by 6.5 percent in 2005, markedly less than the 9 percent growth recorded in 2004, as a result of lower economic output, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said Thursday.

    "While growth in trade will remain satisfactory in 2005, the decelerating trend is causing some concern," said WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy.

    "To set us on the right course we need to create more opportunities for trade, particularly in developing countries, and we need to adjust global trade rules to better meet the needs of entrepreneurs in the 21st century," Lamy said.

    The best way to achieve this goal was through the successful conclusion of the Doha round of global trade negotiations, Lamy said.

    Trade growth picked up in member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the second quarter of 2005, but available information pointed to significant growth deceleration in intra-Asian trade and in US imports in the first half of 2005, the WTO said in its annual report of International Trade Statistics 2005.

    The steep rise in real oil prices, to their highest level in more than two decades, has negatively affected consumer and business confidence in the oil importing countries, and the full impact of the price increases is still to be felt in consumer and business expenditure, said the world trade body.

    The statistics showed that world merchandise exports increased in nominal terms by 21 percent to 8.9 trillion US dollars in 2004. In real terms, merchandise exports rose by 9 percent in 2004 compared with nearly 5 percent in 2003.

    Trade in commercial services grew in nominal terms by 18 percent to 2.1 trillion dollars in 2004, which was also stronger than the 14 percent growth recorded in the preceding year. Enditem