Differences between leading members in the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Doha round may not be bridged in time for a deal this summer, the European Union's trade chief said on Saturday.
European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said he had "a good discussion" with Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim at a summit of EU and Latin American leaders.
"There are gaps still to be bridged. I cannot say at this stage whether that will be possible by the summer but we are resolved to keep working together and with our negotiating partners," he told reporters.
The round was launched in 2001 to help developing countries and boost world trade.
But differences remain between leading members of the WTO, chief among them the EU, Brazil and the United States, putting in doubt whether a July deadline for agreement on the most important issues can be met.
Ministers from WTO countries were likely to meet again in June, Mandelson said.
Negotiators say the July deadline is important because a year might be needed to translate any deal into the small print of a final agreement covering thousands of tariff lines in each of the WTO's 149 member countries.
In July 2007, US President George W. Bush is due to lose his powers to sign trade deals without potentially extensive changes being made by the US Congress.
Brazil, emerging as an agricultural powerhouse, wants the EU to improve on its offer to cut farm import tariffs and the United States to go further with plans to reduce farm subsidies.
In turn, the EU and the United States want Brazil and other big developing economies to offer more access to its markets for industrial goods, such as cars or chemicals.
Mandelson left Vienna for meetings in Asia with ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations group (Asean).
"We will be discussing primarily the Doha Round and where we can narrow differences between us," he said. "But we will also be discussing future prospects for a bi-regional EU-Asean trade agreement."
Mandelson has previously said the EU will turn its attention to regional trade deals, especially in Asia where the United States is already negotiating similar agreements, once the WTO round is over.
ENERGY CONCERNS DOMINATE EU-LATIN AMERICAN SUMMIT Brazil and Bolivia vowed to work out their differences over Bolivia's nationalisation of energy resources as EU and Latin American leaders wrapped up Saturday a three-day summit marked by this oil and gas dispute.
Bolivian President Evo Morales, who became the leader of South America's poorest nation last December, has stolen the show in Vienna following his May 1 decision to nationalise his country's energy sector, the continent's largest after Venezuela, and due to fears of similar actions in other countries.
There were few concrete results from the gathering of 60 heads of state and government, with a surprising moment coming when a bikini-clad Argentinean beauty queen broke in for a protest on behalf of Greenpeace.
In a final, 17-page statement dubbed the "Declaration of Vienna," the 60 nations said that the European Union and six Central American countries had agreed to open negotiations on setting up a free-trade zone.
But the EU said it regretted that it has faltered in forging closer ties to two other Latin American groupings, the Andean community of nations, which joins Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, and Mercosur, the South American common market joining Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, speaking as current EU president and the host here, said he was "very satisfied with the results" of the summit, with a goal set to double trade and investment between the two regions over the next five years. But the main drama here came from Morales, who is a close ally of the anti-US Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and concern over the repercussions nationalist control of oil and gas resources could have on world markets. On Thursday, Morales set off alarm bells when he said his government would not compensate foreign firms for assets they might lose in the wake of his decree, although he almost immediately modified his stance to strike a more reasonable tone.
Morales said after meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Saturday that the media had blown up his comments.
"We are victims of certain media who seek to make us (Bolivia and Brazil) look like adversaries. They cannot do that," Morales told reporters.
Morales has given foreign energy companies 180 days to agree to new contracts with Bolivia's state oil firm YPFB, which will thereafter become the majority shareholder in energy companies operating in Bolivia.
On Saturday, Morales and Chavez were scheduled to attend an "alternative summit" organised by anti-globalisation protestors, while EU leaders closed the official summit with a series of bilateral talks with Caribbean and Latin American partners.
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