Trade powers make new push for Doha breakthrough

BRUSSELS, May 17 (Reuters) Trade powers began a new push on Thursday to find a breakthrough in global trade talks that risk running out of time.

Top negotiators of the United States, the European Union, Brazil and India -- four core members of the World Trade Organisation -- gathered at a secluded chateau in Brussels for the first of a flurry of meetings planned before August.

They agreed last month that the WTO's Doha round of negotiations should yield a new global free trade treaty by the end of the year, but getting there requires that a detailed blueprint be hammered out by the end of July.

The round was launched more than five years ago, shortly after the 2001 attacks on the United States, and aims to boost the global economy and help millions escape poverty.

But deep differences, mainly over farm trade, have meant the negotiators have in the past missed deadline after deadline.

Trade officials warn there could be more years of delay, or a complete collapse of the talks, if a deal is not done in 2007.

Elections in the United States in 2008 and in India in 2009 and other factors will prevent governments from making the politically sensitive concessions needed for a deal, they say.

WTO Director General Pascal Lamy has played down the chances of a breakthrough at the Brussels meeting, which will continue on Friday. But he said the talks were entering a crucial phase.

''Agriculture remains a sort of gateway issue. We know where the trade-offs are in agriculture now... The only question is how much,'' he told reporters in Paris on Wednesday.

India and the United States, which have been at loggerheads over who should make the next move in the negotiations, said on Wednesday talks were advancing and the mood was positive but they stuck to their key demands.

Australian Trade Minister Warren Truss went further, telling journalists at the end of a meeting of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, attended by many trade ministers, that a deal would be struck.

''After the last couple of days in Paris I get the perception that there is now a view that an agreement is inevitable and that we will get an outcome,'' he said.

Washington is under pressure to offer far deeper farm subsidy cuts but says developing countries such as India must open up their markets more to U.S. agricultural goods. India says that could devastate millions of poor local farmers.

EU officials are worried not enough attention is being paid to cutting import tariffs for industrial goods, such as the cars and chemicals of which European companies want to export more.

REUTERS DKS RS1653