GENEVA, May 15 (Xinhua) -- World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy on Monday analogized the Doha round of trade talks to marathon running, saying a "second wind" was urgently needed for WTO members to push the talks to the finish.

    "In a race it is always the last few kilometers which are the hardest ... and the trick in this situation is to find your second wind," Lamy told a meeting of the General Council, the WTO's highest-level decision-making body in Geneva.

    He said WTO members must have "the mental resolve to overcome fatigue" and fully focus on the "finish line" in order to make the necessary breakthrough for a successful round.

    The Doha round was launched in late 2001 to boost the global economy with the hope of lifting millions out of poverty.

    The WTO director-general has made it quite clear that talks on agriculture and NAMA (non-agricultural market access) are the crucial part for the Doha round, which also includes services and special measures to aid the poorest countries.

    An agreement on the "modalities" of agriculture and NAMA, namely formulas for cutting domestic support and tariffs, is seen as the key for solving all other problems in the talks.

    After missing an April 30 deadline for achieving the "modalities", Lamy has been urging WTO members to finish the tough task "in weeks rather than months" to avoid a total failure of the round, which should conclude at the end of the year, as agreed by all the 149 WTO members at the Hong Kong ministerial meeting last year.

    Lamy reiterated on Monday that the overall picture of the Doha round is "by no means a bleak one", as progress had been made on parts of the Doha agenda.

    But he stressed again that all efforts and progress "could be put at risk if negotiators fail to unlock the modalities in agriculture and NAMA in the coming weeks."

    "We can achieve modalities - I am convinced of that, but it is going to be hard work," Lamy said.

    "We must just get our second wind. As we all know, looking at developments in the world around us, the stakes are too high for us to fail," he warned. Enditem