DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Climate change, the Doha Round trade negotiations under the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the conflicts in the Middle East dominated discussions at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
The Doha Round talks, which were held on the sidelines of the forum, stole the show.
Trade ministers from some 30 WTO members met in a Davos hotel on Saturday in a bid to relaunch the stalled Doha Round. The informal gathering produced positive atmosphere, prompting hopes for a breakthrough in a few months' time.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, who attended the Saturday meeting, said there could be some sort of breakthrough in March or April.
"I left the meeting with higher sense of optimism," Amorim told reporters immediately after the informal meeting.
He said there was willingness to engage and restart the Doha Round negotiations in a formal way and there was a sense of urgency that was not there before.
"I didn't see any voice that would depart from this general mood."
Both the European Union (EU) and the United States gave positive signs, putting more on the table than last July when the negotiations stalled, he said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair later in the day confirmed Amorim's remarks. "I think it is now more likely than not, though by no means certain, that we will reach a deal within the next few months," he told the last plenary session of the forum.
The Doha Round talks were suspended last July mainly due to profound differences among key players, particularly on agriculture.
Climate change attacked much attention of the world political and business leaders participating in the forum.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in her keynote speech at the opening plenary session, called for global responsibility in tackling the issue.
Both Merkel and Blair, however, sensed positive signals from the United States, which releases the largest amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the world.
"The mood in the U.S. is in the process of a quantum shift," said Blair. He said China and India have begun to engage positively in environment issues.
U.S. President George W. Bush announced on Tuesday that his country wants to reduce petrol consumption by 20 percent in the next 10 years.
Europe is pushing for a new binding international agreement on climate change which can come into effect when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
Actually this year's annual meeting is more relevant to Davos itself than ever as climate change was high on the agenda.
Participants who arrived at the eve of the annual meeting might be surprised to see significantly less snow in the ski resort compared with the previous years. The situation was mitigated by fresh snowfall on Tuesday night and during the five-day event.
With the presence of key leaders from the Middle East, conflicts in the region became hot topics at the meeting.
At the center of the discussions was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which many participants agreed was the core issue in the region.
Jordan's King Abdullah II on Friday asked for action to tackle the Israeli-Palestinian issue and bring a quick solution to it.
"After nearly 70 years of Arab-Israeli conflict, after a 40-year occupation of Palestinian land, there is new international attention and willpower to end this long and destructive clash," the king told a session of the annual meeting.
The international community has decided to give a new push to the Middle East peace process. The so-called Middle East Quartet --the United States, the EU, the United Nations and Russia -- are going to meet on Feb. 2 in Washington.
After that, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to the Middle East again to broker talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
"The challenges are certainly real. But it is because the stakes are so high that we must seize every chance to make a difference," said King Abdullah.
The situation in Iraq and Lebanon, two other flash points in the region, was also widely debated. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora had to cancel his planned trip to Davos due to unrest in his country.
The rise of China and India continued to be a focus of the annual meeting. It was put under the context of this year's theme: the Shifting Power Equation. Under this theme, participants also discussed the shift of communication power from institutions to individuals and the shift of power from business leaders to consumers and shareholders as well as the increasing influence of commodity suppliers.
