GENEVA The WTO's 144 members on Friday agreed the director general of the organization should chair new international trade negotiations, paving the way for the talks to get underway.

They also hammered out the rules and procedures of the new trade round, officially launched in Doha in November.

World Trade Organization Director General Mike Moore, reacting to the news from New York City where he is attending the World Economic Forum, said he was "deeply honoured" to assume the post.

"In establishing a sound basis for our work through these rules and procedures, governments have put in place the necessary framework for completing our negotiations within the tight deadline set by ministers," he said in a statement.

Under an agreement, moore, a former New Zealand prime minister, will be replaced by Thailand's Supachai Panitchpakdi in September as director general of the Geneva-based global trade body.

WTO delegates agreed on Friday for the "director general in an ex-officio capacity", or the incumbent, to chair the Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) until the end of 2004.

Trade ministers set themselves a three-year deadline for the new trade round that is to include talks on further liberalizing trade in areas such as agriculture, services, market access and intellectual property rights.

Seven bodies have also been highlighted in which to hold the negotiations, and consultations will now be held on who should chair those groupings. Candidates will be selected mainly from Geneva-based delegations.

The new negotiations are now expected to start in a few weeks but the TNC is only expected to meet about twice before moore steps down as director general later in the year, AFP quoted one diplomat as saying.

A number of developing countries had been worried that if a WTO secretariat member were to chair the TNC they would be put at a disadvantage, preferring instead that a Geneva-based ambassador hold the post.

But the majority of the WTO's 144 members, including the so-called quad -- United States, European Union, Japan and Canada -- backed the post going to the director general.

"WTO members in Geneva have taken the first, important, indeed necessary step towards implementing the negotiating mandate agreed in Doha," EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said in a written statement.

"These decisions mean the WTO is now able to start the actual work of the negotiations," he added.

U.S. ambassador to the WTO Linnet Deily told reporters at WTO headquarters here that the United States was satisfied with the package of guidelines as a whole.

"I feel it's been a very constructive and very productive time," she said.

WTO ambassadors began their talks on the details of the trade negotiations on Monday, but were forced to adjourn their meeting several times over the week because of disagreements.

China, one of the newest WTO members after 15 years of negotiating its entry, had been keen to ensure that any differences in countries' positions in the new trade round would be clearly reflected if there was no consensus.