US 'strongly' backs Russia entry into WTO: official

Washington "strongly supports" Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization, a top US official said Wednesday, amid renewed calls by Russia for quick admission to the global trade body. "The United States strongly supports Russia's accession to the WTO," said William Burns, US undersecretary of state for political affairs. Burns noted in remarks made at the Center for American Progress, a Washington thinktank, that Russia is "the largest economy in the world outside the WTO -- the only G20 member outside" the influential trade bloc. A former US ambassador to Moscow, he said that "it is truly is not in Russia's interest, or our interest" that Russia remain outside the WTO. The US diplomat's remarks came one day after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for Moscow's swift entry into the WTO "without humiliation or new demands."