Glimmers of hope for world trade talks-EU official

BRUSSELS, Feb 26 (Reuters) Talks on how to unblock global trade talks have shown some glimmers of hope but it is still too soon to say if a breakthrough is possible, a senior European Union official said today.

The EU, the United States and big developing nations such as India and Brazil are trying to narrow differences in the World Trade Organisation's Doha round of negotiations, launched more than five years ago to boost commerce and ease poverty.

The round was revived officially this month after being suspended last year. But recent meetings between the biggest of the WTO's 150 members have yielded little visible progress.

''There are glimmers of light in the negotiation but so far we have not really engaged in the kind of negotiation ... to say whether a breakthrough is possible,'' said David O'Sullivan, the top civil servant at the European Commission's trade department.

''There is a strong sense of a window of opportunity between now and the summer,'' he told an agriculture committee in the European Parliament.

Negotiators say that if the negotiations stretch into 2008, they could be hampered by the US presidential elections.

''There is a hope we can get a breakthrough on the so-called gateway issues,'' O'Sullivan added.

The main sticking blocks in the talks are the EU's refusal to meet demands from the United States and some other countries on cutting agricultural farm import tariffs and US resistance to calls to go further with farm subsidy cuts.

Washington and Brussels both want developing countries to open up their markets in manufactured goods such as cars and chemicals and in services.

O'Sullivan also said there was a growing sense of frustration among other WTO members that they were not yet involved in the negotiations between the trade powers.

Negotiators from the United States, the EU, Brazil, India and Japan met last week in London for bilateral meetings.

US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said the United States made some progress with the EU and Brazil but India, which says it is concerned about the welfare of its subsistence farmers, was holding back.

REUTERS SAM RK2148