"Although the ministerial meeting has failed, significant progress has been made during the Doha round on some sensitive issues," Maxim Medvedkov said.
Talks in Geneva between trade ministers from the largest WTO member countries broke up Tuesday after nine days of meetings to discuss agricultural subsidies and customs duties on industrial and agricultural products, and also try to fix a date for a conference aimed at achieving a breakthrough in the Doha round of talks on liberalizing global trade.
The Russian official added that the parties had reached common understanding on 18 of the 20 issues under discussion, including on the need to cut agricultural subsidies.
At the same time, developed and developing nations failed to agree on protection of agricultural imports and reduction of industrial import tariffs.
"There is still a chance that in the fall, the negotiators will be able to review their positions and return to the negotiating table to address the remaining problems," Medvedkov said.
The Doha Round began in Qatar's capital in 2001, but has stalled due to disagreements over farming subsidies in the U.S., the EU and Japan, and trade tariffs in emerging economies.
Alexei Portansky, director of the information center on Russia's accession to the WTO, told RIA Novosti on Monday that joining the 152-member bloc before the Doha agreement is signed is of strategic importance to Russia.
"Otherwise, [WTO] rules will change, and we will have to start all over again," he said.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, who visited Russia in June, said the country would become a WTO member by November 2009, and could complete accession talks later this year. However, he warned that although Russia had already concluded 90% of the necessary negotiations, it still had a number of issues to settle.
Georgia, which became a WTO member in 2000, is threatening to block Russia's accession to the WTO unless Moscow halts support for its breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Ukraine joined the WTO in May 2008, and has since been seeking access to Russian oil and gas pipelines.
