Lima - The foreign and trade ministers of the 21 economies that make up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum stressed Thursday the need for collaboration and rejected calls for protectionism at a time of economic crisis.

"We met during the most difficult set of economic conditions we have seen since APEC was created in 1989," the ministers noted in a joint declaration at the end of their two-day meeting in Lima.

"We will stand firm against any protectionist sentiment," they said.

Ahead of the bloc's annual leaders' meeting this weekend, APEC ministers instead called for a "rapid, coordinated and effective response to the current global financial crisis."

The statement insisted on the need to maintain "open trade and investment policies to support the other financial and economic policy responses taken to date."

The ministers noted that "APEC economies have been some of the biggest beneficiaries of the open, rules-based multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organization (WTO)."

In this context, they called "for a prompt and successful conclusion" to the Doha Round of talks at the WTO level, which are currently stalled mainly over disagreements on agricultural subsidies. (dpa)