US President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao will be among the leaders taking part in the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperationsummit, being held this year in the South Korean port of Busan.

APEC's free-trade agenda has been overshadowed since the September 11 attacks by security and terrorism, but problems preceding December's World Trade Organisation talks in Hong Kong will dominate this week's meetings.

"The WTO is probably the highest priority for APEC," said a US official. "In the past APEC has been very successful in moving the WTO agenda forward."

A bitter dispute over agriculture subsidies in rich countries has brought warnings that the December 13-18 Hong Kong meeting could fail, a scenario that APEC leaders will try to head off in their talks on Friday and Saturday.

The leaders are set to issue a statement calling on all nations involved in the trade talks to make concessions to ensure the round of negotiations launched in the Qatari capital Doha in 2001 do not collapse.

"We urge all WTO members to make further, meaningful contributions to move the negotiations forward," says the draft declaration obtained by AFP.

Officials stressed there would be no negotiations on nitty-gritty WTO problems in Busan, but that APEC leaders wanted to make a strong political statement to help break the deadlock.

APEC was set up to forge a free trade area among the 21 countries and territories bordering the Pacific Ocean, and it has become a magnet for protesters opposed to the inequalities of the world's trading system.

A radical alliance of farmers, students, anti-globalisation groups and anti-war demonstrators has vowed to bring more than 100,000 people onto the streets of Busan to protest against the summit and its agenda.

In an early signal of the tense week ahead, police said Sunday that an activist protesting the plight of South Korea's farmers committed suicide.

South Korean police have mobilized a huge security operation, deploying over 30,000 officers in Busan and enforcing draconian land, sea and air exclusion zones around the conference venues.

As China reported a new bird flu outbreak and global concern over the dangerous H5N1 virus strain continued, APEC leaders were expected to demand closer cooperation and an action plan to respond to a possible pandemic.

They were also expected to address the stockpiling of Tamiflu and the relaxing of intellectual property regulations on the antiviral drug, considered the best treatment for the virus in humans.

The leaders are also expected to issue a strong statement condemning terrorism following last week's hotel bombings in Jordan, which killed at least 57 people and were blamed on the Al-Qaeda network.

Despite the stalemate in talks on North Korea's nuclear programme last week in Beijing, South Korea is pushing for a peace declaration at the summit and inviting APEC members to invest in an industrial park in the Stalinist state.

Energy security, including cooperation on oil exploration and the search for alternative sources of energy, as well as efforts to improve emergency preparedness following last year's tsunami disaster and Hurricane Katrina, will also be discussed.

The APEC forum was launched in 1989 and aims to establish a free trade area by 2020. It only makes non-binding agreements, a source of frustration which has led some analysts to question its relevance.

APEC foreign and trade ministers will meet Tuesday and Wednesday before the summit on Friday and Saturday, which will finish with a photocall in which the leaders will wear the Hanbok, a traditional Korean silk tunic.

The forum groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

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