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Gov. John Baldacci has sent a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman, stating that Maine would not be covered by the World Trade Organization's service-sector rules in the General Agreement on Trade in Services.

Concerned that state public services could be threatened by World Trade Organization negotiations in Geneva this week, Gov. John E. Baldacci has asked federal trade officials to exempt Maine from the WTO's service sector rules.

At the end of two weeks of negotiations on services, world trade union bodies the ICFTU and Public Services International today warned that if they remain on the same course, the GATS negotiations could have a disastrous affect on basic human rights in developing and developed countries.

The process of reforming the United Nations is heating up as diplomats and UN bureaucrats get increasingly embroiled in the many and complex strands of the process.The process of reforming the United Nations is heating up as diplomats and UN bureaucratsget increasingly embroiled in the many and complex strands of the process.The process of reforming the United Nations is heating up as diplomats and UN bureaucrats get increasingly embroiled in the many and complex strands of the process.

Developed countries are actively advocating major structural and operational changes to the United Nations system, including the closure or merger of several UN organisations, and the creation of a few.

The process of reform of the operational activities of the United Nations and possibly of the structures and mandates of its many organizations is proceeding at an increasingly fast pace, with the developed countries taking a leading role in pushing for the reforms.

The Chairman of the G77 in New York has written to the Prime Ministers of Pakistan, Mozambique and Norway who co-chair the panel on UN system-wide coherence to stress that the coherence exercise must strengthen the role of the UN so that it becomes the premier international organization dealing with economic, social and development issues.

Many developing countries and their groupings have voiced their concerns on the current status of the WTO Doha negotiations during a meeting on Tuesday 28 March of the WTO's Trade Negotiations Committee, which oversees the negotiations of the Doha work programme.

Keen to fizzle out the logjam in WTO talks, director general Pascal Lamy will be on a two-day visit to India - an influential member of the world body - beginning on April 5.

There has been no substantial progress in agriculture trade negotiations in Geneva. The April 30 deadline set by the WTO director-general, Pascal Lamy seems unlikely to be met.