Bush says "tough choices" needed in Doha round

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The time for negotiations in the World Trade Organization's Doha round, now in their seventh fractious year, has come and gone, President George W. Bush said on Wednesday.

"The time for debating Doha ... is over," Bush said in a speech at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Instead, the time has come for leaders to make "tough choices," he said.

Negotiators in Geneva are hoping to secure enough consensus in coming weeks to bring trade ministers together for the final horse-trading that would make possible a new world trade agreement by the end of 2008 or early 2009.

The Bush administration has been angling to strike a deal this year, to coincide with Bush's last year in office, but serious divisions remain in agriculture, industrial trade and other areas that have plagued the talks since the start.

Developing nations have pressured the United States to make big cuts in subsidies to American farmers. But Bush cautioned on Wednesday that "unilateral concessions" were out of the question.