The World Trade Organisation(WTO) will move the venue of next month's ministerial meeting from Doha, Qatar, to Singapore due to security concerns, a japanese news agency reported Wednesday. WTO director general Mike Moore will visit Qatar to inform the Qatari government of the plan, Kyodo news agency quoted anonymous sources at the Japanese foreign ministry as saying.
The fifth WTO ministerial meeting is scheduled for November 9-13 in the Gulf state, aiming to launch a new round of global trade liberalisation negotiations following the Uruguay Round concluded in 1994.

Japan has already approached Qatar about the proposed venue change, the sources were quoted as saying.
A foreign ministry official declined to comment on Moore's trip to Qatar or Japan's overtures to the planned host.
Changing the venue was not on the formal agenda at a WTO ministerial gathering in Singapore last weekend, but it was discussed over dinner and on other informal occasions, said Kenichiro Mukai, assistant director at the ministry's first international organisation division. Bureau Report