The top US trade negotiator said on Wednesday that WTO member states should consider a "new path" towards swift conclusion to long-stalled negotiations for a world trade liberalisation deal.

"We should all be willing to consider changes to the process that would put the negotiations on a more direct path to success," said Ron Kirk after his first visit to the World Trade Organisation.

"We seek to build on the progress that we have made and find the best way forward, and we collectively want to think about a new path to address the remaining issues," he added after meetings with ambassadors, WTO chief Pascal Lamy and EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton.

Launched in 2001 in the Qatari capital, the Doha Round of negotiations for a broader global trade deal have floundered.

Member states attempted to move the process forward last year, but failed to advance amid a change in the US administration.

Lamy has said that talks could not move forward until member states had Washington's position.

"We need to have the Americans' position on the negotiations. At the moment, we're waiting," he told AFP in an interview in March.

Kirk, who was confirmed to the top trade post in March, on Wednesday reiterated that Washington remained "committed to a successful conclusion" of the Round.

"We see it not only as a critical component of what the President believes will be an overall worldwide response to the economies crisis, but also critical to the sustenance of many of our least developed countries," said Kirk.

However, he said a new approach may have to be taken in order to conclude the Round as "whatever vehicle we've all been loaded on to get to Doha hasn't gotten us there."

"Perhaps we should think less about the vehicles ... what's important is in the bus, not the vehicle.

"If we need to look at a different delivery mechanism, let's be open to do that. But let's not sacrifice the basic underlying principles, but make sure that we're open to whatever it is that might drive us to a successful conclusion."

He stressed that large emerging nations also had a leadership role in arriving at a Doha deal.

Developing countries -- including the Asian powerhouses of China and India -- want the industrialised world to scrap agricultural export subsidies, while Western powers are seeking greater access for their products in emerging markets.

The United States has frequently been at odds with developing and emerging countries as well as with the European Union on subsidies.

An attempt in December to advance the Round ended with the United States and Brazil trading blame for the lack of breakthrough.