By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON, May 10 (Reuters) - A breakthrough is needed in world trade talks to persuade Congress to renew the White House's trade promotion authority, senior Democratic lawmakers said on Thursday.

"The problem (with the Doha round of world trade talks) is not the lack of trade promotion authority. The problem is the stalemate over agriculture and the lack of progress over other issues," Rep. Sander Levin, a Michigan Democrat, told Reuters.

House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, also said Congress would need to be convinced of the need to extend trade promotion authority to finish the Doha round.

The tough line comes after World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy recently urged Congress to begin action toward renewing the trade legislation, which expires at the end of June, to show the United States has not lost faith in the Doha talks.

"I told Pascal Lamy he was wrong ... Trade promotion authority has nothing to do with the problems on agriculture, the lack of progress on non-tariff barriers, the lack of progress on services" and other issues, Levin said.

"Right now, there's nothing that we need to act on for TPA," he said.

Trade promotion authority allows the White House to negotiate trade deals that Congress must approve or reject without making changes. It has long been considered essential for serious negotiations to occur in the Doha round.

The two Democrats spoke at a news conference with U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab to announce a bipartisan deal to include enforceable labor and environmental provisions in free trade agreements.

Schwab, who is heading to Europe next week for talks on the Doha round, said she was hopeful the bipartisan deal would help make it easier to win renewal of trade promotion authority, but acknowledged it was only one step toward that goal.

The U.S. decision to include enforceable labor and environmental agreements in bilateral trade agreements does not apply to the Doha round, which involves negotiators from some 150 countries, lawmakers said.

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