Australian government urged other nations on Tuesday to shun protectionism as forecasts suggested world trade will shrink and jobs will be lost because of the global recession.

"The analogy I used before is that protectionism helps spread the fire, it doesn't put the fire out," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told a financial forum in Washington according to Australian Associated Press (AAP).

Trade Minister Simon Crean has called on nations to resist protectionism, warning it would harm jobs rather than protect them.

"If we want to generate economic activity and sustain economic growth we've got to use the domestic stimulus packages and enhance them (by liberalizing trade)," Crean said in a statement.

Australian PM Kevin Rudd is in Washington and New York for a series of high-level meetings with political leaders, including US President Barack Obama.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has predicted that global trade will shrink by 9 percent this year in the most devastating collapse since World War II.

According to AAP, hardest hit will be rich countries, where trade will fall about 10 percent. But poorer nations may suffer the most because they are more dependent on exports for growth. Trade has grown unabated since 1982.

(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2009)