Lamy sees better prospects for WTO talks - FT

LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) WTO chief Pascal Lamy said prospects for the World Trade Organisation's Doha round of negotiations looked better than last year, the Financial Times reported today.

''The signs we are seeing now are qualitatively different from what we heard last year,'' Lamy told the newspaper. ''The political chemistry is beginning to work.'' World trade talks were suspended in July 2006 and have only recently restarted at the technical level.

Lamy's comments came as the European Commission said the top negotiators of Europe and the United States were likely to meet again soon to discuss the trade talks.

European trade chief Peter Mandelson and U.S. counterpart Susan Schwab met in Washington on Monday and said afterwards that some progress had been made.

Time is running short for the round, which was launched in 2001 in a bid to ease poverty and boost the global economy.

The EU and other WTO countries are pushing the United States to go further with cuts to farm subsidies. Washington has said it wants the EU and some big developing countries to improve on their offers for cutting tariffs on agricultural imports.

Reuters AKJ DB1012