Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Choudhury is leading an around 20-member official delegation to the sixth session of the ministerial December 13-18, being held after a lot of groundwork to salvage the global trade regime from the Cancun collapse.

"Our main concern is to see where the negotiation on NAMA goes," a senior official, one of the key players on Bangladesh side at the world trade talks, told the news agency yesterday.

He said negotiations on the special and differential treatment to the LDCs and services sector, including temporary movement of natural persons, would also be the concern of Bangladesh.

He, however, pointed out that the most recent ministerial text drafted by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on December 6 provided LDCs with more flexibility and options for the LDCs.

"Now the benefits for the LDCs would depend on and be clear during the negotiation on how we could negotiate the factors of flexibility," he said about the prospect of the ministerial meet.

The draft text by the WTO observes that the members are far from achieving full modalities, which it stated to be highly troubling in the ministerial.

Its final remarks say: "It will take a major effort by all if the objective of concluding the NAMA (non-agricultural market access) negotiations by the end of 2006 is to be realised."

The official delegation comprises officials from the Ministries of Commerce and Agriculture, the National Board of Revenue (NBR), Bangladesh Tariff Commission, trade body leaders from FBCCI, BGMEA, BTMA, DCCI and ICC-B, and experts from the civil society.Besides, around 100 activists from NGOs and trade unions from Bangladesh would join some 10,000 anti-globalisation protesters to try to press home their demands. Some 300 ministers, 6,000 delegates, 3,000 journalists and 2,000 NGO representatives are converging on the business hub.