Washington, Apr 14: Favouring early conclusion of the Doha round of global trade talks, India has cautioned against the WTO agenda being overloaded with issues related to labour standards and environment.

"It is important at this stage not to overload the agenda (WTO) or create fresh non-tariff barriers by introducing distracting labour standards and environmental issues, which must be addressed in separate fora," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said at the IMF-World Bank board meeting here yesterday.

The Doha round of WTO talks, which began in 2001 for reaching an agreement on opening of world market, have not yielded much result with developing and developed countries staying poles apart on the issues of agricultural subsidy and market access for industrial goods.

Pointing out that the global community has yet another chance to realise the development promise of the Doha round, Chidambaram said the sensibilities of the developing countries should be key in the run-up to the conclusion of the negotiations.

Agriculture must continue to remain the focal point to the negotiations since the livelihood of more than a billion resource-poor farmers depends on it, he said.

"But we must also bear in mind that the manufacturing and service sectors would contribute to the bulk of the GDP growth in the post-liberalisd economic order, pointing to the need for a balanced final Doha outcome," he said.