Ministers seek common ground as WTO deadline looms

GENEVA, Mar 9 (Reuters) With a ''drop dead'' deadline for a trade deal looming, ministers from six leading World Trade Organisation (WTO) members must find more common ground at talks this weekend in London, diplomats said on Thursday.

But chances looked slim of a big breakthrough at the two or three-day meeting, which kicks off on Friday night between trade chiefs from the European Union, the United States, Japan, Brazil, India and Australia.

''We are not on the last lap but we do need to accelerate and produce new moves in some key areas,'' EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told journalists in Brussels.

''What we need to do is identify 'landing zones', signals of where the common ground could be,'' said a diplomat from a WTO member state taking part in the discussions. ''But frankly, our expectations are not very high,'' he added.

After over four years of stuttering negotiations on a trade deal billed as a ''once in a generation'' chance to boost global business and lift millions out of poverty, the 149-member state WTO is facing its moment of truth.

It has set itself the goal of a draft pact on agricultural and industrial goods, two of the biggest sticking points in the negotiations, by the end of April as a stepping stone to a full trade treaty before the spring of next year.

The spring 2007 date is dictated by the expiry of U.S.

presidential powers to negotiate on trade without much interference from Congress. Without these powers, multilateral trade negotiations become all but impossible, diplomats say.

''I don't see how we can miss that (April 30) date and still ...

be able to send agreement forward early in 2007. So I think that is the 'drop dead' date,'' U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman told journalists before heading for London.

MORE CONCESSIONS Both the United States and the European Union are under pressure to make more concessions in agriculture, where many poorer countries feel they have most to gain from freer trade.

Washington is being urged to go beyond its offer to slash farm subsidies by up to 60 percent, which critics say lowers budget ceilings but without cutting into actual spending. The EU faces demands for deeper tariff cuts to open up its highly protected farm market.

In turn, rich nations are insisting that leading developing states such as Brazil and India do more to open their industrial and services markets to imports.

On industrial tariffs, some developing states, such as India, insist that rich nations go virtually to zero before they will look at reductions that cut significantly into the levels of duty they currently apply themselves, diplomats say.

''We've been dancing around these issues for a long, long time now and we really need to converge on what is acceptable,'' said Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile at a joint news conference with Portman in Washington this week.

However, Portman has ruled out any major move on agriculture by the United States at the London talks, which could run into Sunday.

The EU also says it will not offer anything new in the absence of movement elsewhere.

''Progress does not depend on unilateral moves by particular players but on what everyone can put into the mix together,'' said Mandelson.

REUTERS SHR ND1916