BRASILIA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Brazil will seek to make major progress toward concluding the World Trade Organization (WTO)'s Doha round talks by the end of this year, said a statement from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry on Friday.

    The two sides made the pledge when new U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab called Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, according to the statement.

    Schwab said that Washington was willing to talk about WTO negotiations at the sidelines of the Group of Eight (G-8) summit scheduled for July 15 to 17 in the Russian city of St. Petersburg.

    She hoped that the Doha round of talks would be concluded by the end of this year.

    Brazil is among the Group of 20 developing nations (G-20) which is asking the European Union and the United States to end their agricultural subsidies, a key sticking point in the negotiations. In exchange the G-20 is offering to open up their service sector and industrial product markets.

    Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will discuss the issue with his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush in the coming days, said the statement. Enditem