Four world trade powers said on Friday they had held "productive" talks on how to reach a long-delayed global free trade deal and Brazil said a breakthrough could come next month when they meet again.
After a two-day meeting, ministers from the United States, the European Union, India and Brazil said in a brief statement they were still hopeful of wrapping up the World Trade Organisation's Doha round of negotiations by the end of 2007.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said the so-called G4 group would resume their search for a breakthrough at a new, longer meeting on June 19-22, possibly stretching into June 23.
"We'll do everything we can to close on the main points," he told reporters, adding the meeting would probably be in Europe. The G4 has picked up the pace of negotiations, ahead of a crunch time for the Doha round in late July or early August.
That is when a full blueprint of a final deal needs to be agreed by the WTO's 150 member countries if they are to meet a target of sealing the round by the end of 2007.
If they do not meet that target, then the round is likely to be delayed by several years as US presidential elections in 2008 and elections in India in 2009 take over the agenda in those countries, trade officials have warned.
The four trade powers issued a statement saying their two-day meeting had focused on the key areas of the WTO negotiations - agriculture, industrial goods and services. "Our meetings were productive and included discussions on all the core negotiating areas," they said.
Amorim said negotiators had discussed "phantom numbers" for a possible deal but nothing was put in writing. The talks, held at a chateau where the EU's founding treaties were hammered out just over 50 years ago, did not get to the point were trade-offs were possible, an official said.
"People are starting to circle a landing zone," he said. The Doha round was launched shortly after the 2001 attacks on the United States in an effort to boost the global economy and help millions escape poverty.
But it has been mired in difficulties over farm trade and also over the degree to which developing nations, led by Brazil and India, should cut barriers to imports of industrial goods, such as cars or machine parts, and services.
In agriculture, Washington faces calls to offer far deeper farm subsidy cuts but it says developing countries must also open up their markets more to US agricultural goods. India says that could hurt millions of its poor farmers.
Before the June ministerial meeting, senior trade officials from the G4 countries will hold almost two weeks of negotiations in a bid to clear the way for a breakthrough, Amorim said.