"Not that China is not participating in the negotiations, China is participating," Lamy said Sunday at the end of the Boao Forum for Asia, a gathering of business people and officials focused on greater trade cooperation in Asia.

"But (it is participating) with this notion that as a recently acceded member its main strategic and tactical goal is to pay as little as possible," he said.

"In joining the organization, China got many benefits -- and we see that in textiles for instance -- but it also has to pay a bit of a price in terms of domestic liberalization.

China's lagging role in trade talks "is an issue which I think needs a bit more debate" between Beijing and other nations, he said.

Lamy's criticism marked a departure from two days of praise for emerging economic giant China, which became a WTO member in late 2001 and hopes to turn the Boao meeting into an Asian counterpart to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"Multilateral trade opening has worked well for this region and for this country," said Lamy, a former European trade commissioner.

"And as a consequence of that, this country and this region should recognize this in working well for multilateral trade opening," he said.

Before Lamy took the stage, much of the Boao forum was overshadowed by an ongoing Sino-Japanese dispute and the unresolved North Korean nuclear standoff, which dominated talks earlier Sunday.

A day after the highest-level meeting between North and South Korean leaders in five years, Chung Moon-Soo, an advisor to South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun, expressed optimism over stalled six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program.

"I think with the diplomatic efforts of (South) Korea and China and Russia we can try to persuade North Korea that taking part in the six-party talks is in its best interest," he told AFP.

Talks between Pyongyang and the US, South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear arms ambitions stalled last year after three inconclusive rounds.

Chung said everything now hinged on the North's willingness to return to the negotiations, adding that he had not given up hope that talks would resume.

"You never know. They are really unpredictable. They may come up with a surprise. I'm quite positive that they might change their attitude, and one day announce that they will join," he said.

After meeting Saturday with South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan on the sidelines of an Asia-Africa summit in Jakarta, Kim Yong-nam, North Korea's number two leader, said that Pyongyang may be willing to resume dialogue, but not unconditionally.