A group of developing countries signalled on Thursday they were willing to be flexible on some key issues in an effort to revive world trade talks.
Trade ministers from the Least Developed Countries, grouping some of the world's poorest nations from Angola to Zambia, reaffirmed their stance on many key issues at a meeting in Senegal but left the door open to compromises with rich states.
In their final declaration, passed early on Thursday morning after two days of discussions, the ministers called on rich nations to present clear action plans on cotton subsidies - one of the main stumbling blocks to progress in global trade talks.
"We remain open and flexible to ways and approaches likely to resolve the various aspects of this issue and we expect, from the concerned countries, concrete proposals to resolve urgently the problems raised," the declaration said.
Cotton is one of four areas where World Trade Organisation members are trying to reach outline deals by the end of July in an effort to relaunch global trade talks after their collapse at a ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in late 2003.
Four African states, where 10 million people make a living from cotton, are leading a campaign to get rich nations such as the United States to end subsidies they pay to their own cotton farmers.
They argue the payments are illegal and distort the market.They have insisted cotton must be treated as a separate issue in trade talks and not tackled as part of general agriculture negotiations, as Washington wants. But the declaration and comments from ministers in the talks indicate the four - Benin, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso - may change this stance if rich states guarantee that cotton will be treated as a top priority in agriculture talks.