HANOI, Nov 18: Asia-Pacific leaders on Saturday put their political muscle behind the drive to free up global trade, but they struggled to find common ground on how best to tackle the North Korea nuclear crisis.

The quest for consensus over the response to Pyongyang's shock atom bomb test last month dominated both official debate on the first day of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit and a flurry of sideline diplomacy.

Leaders from the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea -- the five nations involved in talks with the North on ending its nuclear programme -- shuttled to and fro around Hanoi, conferring on their next move.

US President George W. Bush held a rare trilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun, while Russian President Vladimir Putin huddled with China's Hu Jintao.

The 21- member APEC was to issue a statement on Sunday against North Korea for its Oct 9 nuclear test, the White House said, but China and Russia -- Pyongyang's closest allies -- urged a more measured approach to the standoff.

Efforts to break down barriers to free trade more easily won support from APEC leaders, who called for an immediate resumption of the so-called Doha round of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks, which broke down in July.

The members of the bloc, which accounts for nearly half of global trade, pledged their own commitment to compromise, citing an “urgent need” to kickstart the talks, and urged others to follow suit.

“Each of us is committed to moving beyond our current positions,” they said in a joint statement.

“We have an urgent need to break the current deadlock and to put the negotiations back on a path toward a timely conclusion.”The APEC statement on trade urged “deeper reductions” in farm subsidies -- seen as an allusion to generous European Union support -- as well as “real cuts in industrial tariffs” and new opportunities in the services sector.—AFP