The United States and Russia could strike a deal this year on Moscow's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), after making "excellent" progress in talks on Monday, the top U.S. trade negotiator said. Russia is the largest economy still outside the 148-country trade body, and the United States and Japan are the only major powers yet to give their approval to its membership. The talks between U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and Russia's Economy Minister German Gref, their first meeting in months, came some three weeks before President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold a summit, with trade high on the agenda. "We have had an excellent meeting today," Zoellick told journalists after eight hours of talks, far longer than initially scheduled. "If we keep up this momentum, we should be able to reach our bilateral agreement ... on accession during the course of this year." Gref was equally optimistic, saying that an agreement with the United States should clear the way for Russia's accession to be approved by the full WTO membership at a ministerial conference in Hong Kong in December. --More 2328 Local Time 2028 GMT
