China firmly supports the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Doha Round, hoping the imminent Hong Kong meeting will achieve substantive progress, Zhang xiangcheng, director of the Department for WTO Affairs under the Ministry of Commerce said here Monday at a press conference.

China hopes this round of talks will end by 2006 and that the Hong Kong meeting will make some early achievements in topics that have witnessed broad consensus, he said.

"Development is the theme of the Doha-Round talks, which should solve the problems mostly concerned by developing countries, and give necessary special and discriminatory treatment to them," he said.

China hopes various parties will reach consensus on the special treatment given to developing members in the Hong Kong meeting.

Agricultural problems are the core of the Doha Round talks, and China supports the elimination of all kinds of export subsidies in developed countries by 2010, he said.

The WTO's ministerial meeting in Hong Kong is scheduled from December 13 to18.