Trade ministers continued to jockey for position ahead of their meeting tomorrow at the World Economic Forum in Davos, with the EU saying a big breakthrough on the Doha round could come within weeks.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said the broad outlines of a deal in multilateral trade talks, with overall indicators of cuts in farm tariffs and subsidies and goods tariffs was not far away.

"I believe we can get a breakthrough on the big numbers in agriculture and industrial goods in the next month or so," he said. But he continued to argue that the onus was on the US to offer more cuts in farm subsidies. Despite intensive talks between the EU and US negotiators in recent weeks, officials say that gaps remain.

The meeting will discuss whether to reopen multilateral tal- ks which were suspended last July.

The outstanding issue in agriculture was between the US and developing countries, said Mr Mandelson. The US has asked for substantial new access to the consumer markets of big emerging market countries such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Susan Schwab, US trade representative, said a framework agreement was possible "in a matter of months", but that would require rapid progress in the next few weeks. She declined to discuss what cuts in farm tariffs and subsidies would be required for agreement. "There are two things I am not going to get into this weekend," she said. "I am not going to point fingers and I am not going to quote top-line numbers."

Also at Davos two of the world's leading oil companies yesterday said they could not be held responsible for global warming, but expressed a willingness to help governments to improve energy efficiency technology.

Chairman and chief executive of Exxon Rex Tillerson said ultimate responsibility for controlling CO2 emissions lay with consumers of energy. "You can't talk about climate change without putting in the context of energy consumption . . . You can look at almost any forecast and in the year 2030 that consumption is going to grow by 50 per cent."

Mr Tillerson said alternative energy sources would not provide a meaningful substitute in the foreseeable future. "Even with double digit growth in alternatives, those alternatives will account for no more than 2 per cent in 2030."

Agreeing with Mr Tillerson, chairman of Royal Dutch Shell Jeroen Van der Veer said it was not the responsibility of his company to solve climate change.

"In the end you have to be very clear what is the role of government and what is the role of companies. A government decides on the energy mixes. They have to say this is the energy mix for that country." He said his company was willing to co-operate in exploring measures such as finding ways to pump carbon emissions below ground and setting targets for fuel efficiency in cars. - (Additional reporting Financial Times service)