Rome, 17/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - At a meeting organised last week on the sidelines of the FAO Summit on food, Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler and ministers from around fifty countries representing the full range of development levels in the world discussed the provision contained in the Doha declaration whereby concerns other than trade concerns will be duly taken into account in WTO negotiations on agriculture. Talks should end on 31 March 2003 at the latest with the establishment of arrangements in response to the new commitments concerning market access, internal support and competition in exports. In this context, ministers mainly tackled the questions of measures and instruments to be implemented to take account of concerns such as rural development, food security and environmental protection. Reaffirming their commitment to strengthen the multilateral trade system for agriculture by pursuing reform as provided for in Article 20 of the agreement on agriculture and the Doha declaration, ministers stressed it was not possible to take sufficiently into account non-trade concerns in national agricultural production and that the multilateral rules must recognise and ensure the permanent co-existence of different kinds of farming, depending on the conditions that are specific to each country and to the historical and cultural context of each country.