Brazil suggests US most at fault for WTO flop

GENEVA, July 24 (Reuters) Brazil suggested the United States was most at fault for the collapse of world trade talks on Monday, saying negotiations on farm subsidies -- the main defensive issue for Washington -- had made the least progress.

Brazil, Latin America's biggest economy, has pushed for cuts to U.S. farm subsidies and to the European Union's agricultural import tariffs as a way to boost its agricultural exports.

''I won't fall into the temptation of finding culprits ...

but I have to recognise that the area in which we were lagging behind most clearly was domestic support,'' Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told reporters.

He did not mention the United States specifically.

Last-ditch talks by trade powers to keep the Doha round on track collapsed on Monday, raising the prospect of a delay that could last for years.

Amorim said the EU's offer still fell short of the demands of Brazil and other developing countries but Brussels at least showed it was prepared to be flexible on tariff cuts.

''If we had had a similar movement in regard to domestic support, even if insufficient, then we would be playing ball,'' he said.

Brazil has also sought to promote the interests of developing countries in general as a co-head of the G20 group.

In a speech to the WTO's full 149-country membership before his news conference, Amorim said the talks should be resumed sooner rather than later and warned the WTO was facing the biggest crisis of its history.

''We must set our sights (on) the resumption of negotiations in the near, rather than remote, future. Time does not play in our favour,'' Amorim said in notes prepared for the speech.

He also said proposals already on the table should not be withdrawn and negotiators should try to find ways to keep up their contacts to ensure the round moves ahead.

REUTERS MQA RK2240