World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief Mr Mike Moore brushed aside attacks from the anti-globalisation lobby today and new negotiations on freer trade was the best hope to ease the plight of the world's poor.
"By liberalising trade, we can make a huge contribution to alleviating poverty," he told a gathering on the problems of the 48 least-developed countries (LDCs) organised by Britain's overseas development minister Ms Clare Short.
Mr Moore is pushing hard for a final agreement on the launch of new negotiations on reducing tariffs and other barriers to international trade at a meeting of ministers from WTO countries in Qatar in November.
But many, if not all, developing countries are resisting the idea unless the big powers, especially the EU and the United States, agree to reshape some of the accords reached in the last negotiating effort, the 1986-93 Uruguay Round.
In Geneva, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which have helped organise many protests against globalisation in the past four years issued a statement saying they were "appalled" at Mr Moore's campaigning for a round.
Mr Moore said in London world trade "has probably done more to boost living standards and lift people out of poverty over the past 50 years than any other government intervention."
He said he recognised that many developing countries were opposed to launching a round "until the perceived injustices of earlier rounds have been dealt with.
"I understand their concerns. But dwelling on the perceived injustices of the past does nothing to prevent even greater injustices in the future....
"A new round is the surest way to prevent the further marginalisation of LDCs from the world economy and to deal with the problems that they may have with existing WTO agreements and the way that the WTO is run," Mr Moore declared.