G8 leaders called for a prompt conclusion to long-delayed global free trade talks on Friday and the head of the European Commission and the WTO both expressed optimism that a deal could be done.
"We ... call on all WTO members to demonstrate constructive flexibility to bring these negotiations to a prompt successful conclusion," said a statement issued by Germany in its role as president of the G8 group of industrialised countries.
"The time has come to translate the continued commitment on a political level into tangible results," said the statement issued at the end of a summit.
Four trade powers - the European Union, the United States, India and Brazil - will meet for five days in Germany from June 19 in what could be a last-gasp attempt at a breakthrough in the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Doha round.
It was launched more than five years ago in a bid to steady the global economy after the 2001 attacks on the United States, and to help developing countries trade their way out of poverty.
But the negotiations have floundered on arguments about how to bring down barriers to commerce, especially in farm and industrial goods. Without a breakthrough soon, the round could be put on hold for several more years, negotiators have warned. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the G8 leaders treated the WTO impasse with more importance than at a similar meeting last year when they called for progress in the talks only for them to be suspended shortly afterwards.
"Last year everybody said it was necessary to make an effort but there was not the sense of urgency," Barroso told reporters on Friday. "I believe we can have an agreement if now all of us are coherent with the statements made around the table," he said.
DIFFERENCES NARROW: WTO chief Pascal Lamy sounded an equally optimistic note, telling leaders a deal was within reach providing that all made the needed compromises. "While my diagnosis remains cautious, I think that an agreement is now within reach," he said.
Differences between the major negotiating groups within the 150-state WTO - which now only amounted to a few billion dollars of tariff and subsidy cuts - had been narrowing in recent weeks of talks. "With an added political effort from each and every one of you, we should be able to cover the remaining ground," he said.
The WTO negotiations have stalled on calls for the United States to go further with cuts to farm subsidies, the EU to offer bigger cuts to agricultural import tariffs and big developing countries led by Brazil and India to do more to open up their economies to imports.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has previously urged all sides to be flexible, said the positions were "quite close now." "I think there has been quite a lot of movement. We are a few percentage points and a few billion dollars away from doing a deal," he told reporters.
But an EU official quoted French President Nicolas Sarkozy as telling other G8 leaders that "you can't treat agriculture like any other commodity" and he stressed the need for real new gains for Europe in the round.