International farm trade negotiators met on Friday seeking to force the pace of struggling global trade talks, but diplomats saw no progress before a flurry of ministerial gatherings next week.
Ministers from 15 leading World Trade Organisation (WTO) members gather in Zurich on Monday afternoon, for a session hosted by the United States, which will be followed by two more days of intense ministerial diplomacy in Geneva.
They hope to give momentum to the WTO's Doha Round with just two months to go to a ministerial conference in Hong Kong which will decide the fate of the bid to lower trade barriers across the global economy.
Although the round covers virtually all areas of business, including services and manufacturing, the key to success lies in agriculture where developing countries have most at stake.
"The purpose of the ministers is to give us guidance, to lay out parameters for the negotiators so we can get to our goal (of a deal)," said one senior US trade official who declined to be identified.
In Hong Kong, the 148-state WTO wants a full blueprint for the round, with accords on slashing rich nation farm subsidies and lowering tariffs on all goods and opening up services markets that can be turned into a final a deal by end-2006.
The liberalisation round, launched in late 2001 to help calm global economic nerves after the September 11 attacks, has already missed its initial end-2004 deadline and a failure in Hong Kong could kill it altogether.
"The negotiations are stalled on agriculture and this is holding up the entire round," said Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile, who will be in Zurich and Geneva.
"It is incumbent on the US and the EU as the major subsidisers to show leadership," he added in a statement.
Four days of farm talks in Geneva, due to end later on Friday, focused on issues such as tariffs, subsidies and aids the United States and others give exporters which the EU wants curbed in return for its offer to end direct export subsidies.
"We are seeing some gamesmanship," said one diplomat from a developed state about the EU-US demand the other move first.
"But at least the EU has come up with some numbers on tariff cuts, we have not seen anything from Washington on domestic support (subsidies)," the diplomat added.
In Washington, where Congress is soon to begin work on the Farm Bill that lays out agricultural spending, US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns indicated on Thursday that the United States might be getting ready to offer something next week on farm subsidies.
"Let me be clear that the WTO will not write our next farm bill, but we must show leadership in the area," he said, referring to subsidies.