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BRUSSELS -- Peter Mandelson, the European Union's top trade official, said he wants a new round of global trade talks that will focus on energy, with the goal of subjecting trade in oil and gas to the same "ordinary rules" as other goods.

Bringing energy trade and investment under the rules and enforcement procedures of the World Trade Organization would, among other things, require that producers provide free access to transit of such resources, Mr. Mandelson said in an interview. That would include the sensitive issue of breaking Russia's monopoly over access to its gas pipelines.

Mr. Mandelson's proposal shows how $70-a-barrel oil prices and narrow margins of spare capacity have officials around the global scouring for ways to rebalance the terms of energy trade in consumer nations' favor, energy analysts say.

Any such new trade round would likely be years away, with the current Doha talks on trade in agricultural products and other sectors still limping toward a conclusion. Extending the WTO's reach over energy would also face enormous hurdles. For one thing, producers are likely to see little to gain in opening up distribution networks to competition.

However, already within the Doha talks, some countries have argued to extend the WTO's coverage to oil-and-gas services -- the products are already covered -- and energy officials say interest has been rising for some time in devising better rules. A senior WTO official said he hadn't heard any proposal to launch an energy-focused round of talks, though if made, "it would be given serious thought."

Mr. Mandelson acknowledged that securing such a deal would be difficult. But he said a global forum such as the WTO -- where most parties are at the table and able to negotiate a wide range of demands in various sectors -- is the best way to attain "structural change" in areas that states regard as fundamental to their interests.

"The difficulty is that oil and gas are viewed by those that have them as a national-security issue, as well as an economic good. And they are a source of political strength," Mr. Mandelson said.

According to Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, the industrialized world's energy-market watchdog, there has been growing discussion over how to eliminate energy-trade barriers as the traded portion of oil and gas consumption increases. The IEA projects that the traded portion of global oil production will rise from 50% today to 66% in 25 years, while traded gas would rise from 18% to 33%.

The growth mainly reflects that oil and gas output in big industrialized consumer nations is falling, requiring them to seek more energy resources from producers in the Middle East, Russia and Venezuela. "Freer trade, as is always the case, will empower the consumer," Mr. Birol said.

To entice producers to a deal, Mr. Mandelson suggests offering them more security in their export markets and investment. Producers would benefit from a freer flow of capital for investment and a reduction of protectionism in consumer countries, which would enable them to buy assets there, Mr. Birol said.

Still, some important producers, such as Russia, aren't yet in the WTO, and attempts to secure the same agreements in other forums have been less than successful. In the early 1990s, negotiators worked to integrate the energy markets of former Soviet states with Western Europe. The resulting Energy Charter went into force in 1998, promoting cross-border energy investment and freer access to pipelines and power grids. More than 50 countries have signed up, but it has done little to free up Europe's tightly regulated energy markets.

Outside Europe, the biggest energy exporters don't have much incentive to sign up amid today's super-high oil prices and outsize revenue inflows. Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, joined the WTO in December as part of its long-term strategy of diversifying its economy and attracting foreign investment. But Riyadh has specifically ruled out any significant foreign participation in its oil sector.

Meanwhile, trade negotiators were preparing for a critical session in the Doha round next week. WTO chief Pascal Lamy said it was crucial that diplomats agree to the blueprint of a deal as scheduled at the end of this month. A number of trade diplomats, including some in the U.S. and Europe, have suggested they may need until the end of July to agree to a new pact. "One more month...will change nothing," he said.

Getting a quick deal looks tough. WTO diplomats yesterday released a draft agriculture text for negotiation. The 74-page document was punctuated with 760 individual points that have yet to be agreed upon. A similar paper released before the 1999 Seattle meeting contained 402 such entries. Some analysts said the numerous areas of disagreement signaled that the round had come to a standstill.

Mr. Lamy said that a large number of those issues might be easily dealt with and that there is still hope for a deal on agriculture. He noted that political leaders from Europe, the U.S. and major developing countries have recently signaled their willingness to be flexible.