G7 ministers and central bank governors meeting here said in a final statement they would "resist protectionism and promote liberalization of trade and investment including an ambitious outcome from the Doha Development Round."

Their statement came at a critical moment in the round, which is currently foundering and threatened with collapse in the face of lingering disagreements on how to reduce trade-distorting subsidies and slash import tariffs.

In Geneva Friday, World Trade Organization negotiators acknowledged that a key deadline would likely be missed, throwing into dount chances for completing the round by the end of the year as the WTO had hoped.

European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said the WTO's 150 member governments had failed to narrow their differences sufficiently to reach an outline agreement on cutting tariffs and other trade barriers by the target date of April 30.

The Doha round was launched with great fanfare in the Qatari capital in late 2001 and is aimed at harnessing freer trade as a means to improve living standards in developing countries.

Failure to complete the process, it is feared, could give rise to a wave of protectionism.

Already in Europe recent moves by France and Spain to resist takeovers of French and Spanish companies by foreign investors have sparked protectionist concerns.

The G7 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.