The European Union is aiming to use a summit with the United States this week to pile the pressure on Washington to make concessions Brussels considers essential for success in WTO trade negotiations.
Trade talks figure high on the agenda of the summit on Wednesday, which will be attended by US President George W. Bush and offer the last opportunity for top level talks ahead of a key WTO ministerial meeting at the end of the month.
Members of the World Trade Organisation are struggling to meet their deadline of year-end 2006 to complete the current, so-called Doha Development Agenda of trade talks, which is supposed to help poor countries.
"The summit is an excellent chance to discuss DDA in detail," EU trade chief Peter Mandelson said on Friday.
"I have constantly welcomed President Bush's commitment to an ambitious round," added Mandelson, who is to accompany EU commission head Jose Manuel Barroso at the summit.
Bush warned on Thursday that global trade talks had reached "a critical moment" and called for tit-for-tat concessions to reach an elusive deal.
But as far as the Europeans are concerned, the ball is in the US court and it is up to Washington to make important concessions, especially on the particularly on the sticky subject agriculture trade.
"The problem with the US position is that they are offering to pay too little for what they expect in return," Mandelson said.
"That has to change before we can unlock the possibility of a deal," he added.
The Doha round, which was launched in 2001 in the Qatari capital, was meant to have been completed in 2004. Negotiators also missed their last deadline, April 30, for deciding on the mathematics of the final accord.
WTO ministers are next to meet at the headquarters of the free-trade organization's headquarters on June 29 to try to hammer out an agreement on the framework for further talks on the key subjects of tariffs on agriculture and industrial products.
The EU and big developing commodity producers want the Untied States to make a sharp cut in customs tariffs on farm products as well as reduce generous support to US farmers.
To make progress, the EU trade commissioner said, "emerging economies have to make realistic and effective offers in cutting tariffs on industrial goods."
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