Trade ministers from around the world head into talks in Geneva on a global commerce deal today.
Nearly five years since it opened, the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Doha round risks running out of time, and hopes that this week's gathering might break the deadlock have faded.
Top negotiators from Australia, Brazil, the European Union, India, Japan and the United States met late yesterday but made no progress on two of the round's core issues - trade in farm and manufactured goods.
WTO head Pascal Lamy has warned members there can be no more delays. Failure to agree this weekend on how to cut farm subsidies and tariffs in agricultural and industrial goods could mean no end to the round in 2006.
That could mean years of further delay for a deal conceived to give the global economy a boost and tackle poverty in some of the world's poorest countries.
Brazil said developing countries felt their richer counterparts were not making the kind of sacrifices needed to get the negotiations moving. "
There are also major differences between the United States and the EU over farm reform as part of the round.
US trade officials said demands by Brussels that Washington sweeten its offer to cut farm subsidies were an attempt to distract from the EU's own problems.
A senior US trade official said Washington would continue to demand that Europe and other countries meet its big demands for opening farm markets.
France, the most vocal defender of Europe's protections for its farmers, again warned European trade chief Peter Mandelson that he had no room to offer further cuts to import duties on agricultural goods.
But other EU member states agreed with Mr Mandelson that the EU could move towards the position of the G20 group of developing countries if other countries make the right kind of concessions.
The G20, led by Brazil and India, want rich countries to make average cuts of 54 per cent to their farm import duties. The United States wants cuts of some 66 per cent, but the current offer from Brussels stands at 39 per cent.