Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has spoken of his concerns over the next round of WTO reforms, according to a report from the Hindustan Times. The Indian Premier is chairing a two-day conference entitled: "Concerns of the developing countries in the WTO regime".

Mr. Vajpayee believes that the Uruguay round did not make much progress towards the liberalisation of trade in agriculture, which would benefit developing countries. He has also complained of barriers to trade on items such as textiles, leather and steel where he claimed that developed countries were using their competitive position to maintain the status quo.

One of the main issues on the agenda in the next round of WTO reforms will be intellectual property rights on products such as medicine and software.