Sunday, March 5 2006 13:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath is expected to attend three days of crucial talks here from Friday, convened by European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson to break the deadlock in world trade negotiations.

But protesters, planning to picket the meeting, alleged that a coterie of six powerful World Trade Organisation members, including Europe, US, Brazil and India, are trying to stitch up a deal that will hurt developing countries.

"We are worried that this deal is being done in smoke-filled rooms - it's not representative, it's not fair," said Liz Stuart, trade policy analyst at Oxfam.

"It's an exclusive club," claimed Alex Wijeratna, of Action Aid. "What about the other 144 countries that are dependent on what comes out of this cabal?"

According to him, no member of the poorest group, the so-called 'Least Developed ountries,' would be present.

But Mandelson said that gathering a small number of WTO members around the table for the meeting - which is also likely to be attended by Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath - was "the only way to do it" and said he was hopeful of persuading the participants to sign up to "an agreed level of ambition."

"I hope the London meeting will be useful; I hope it will be results-oriented," he told 'The Observer'.

Ministers have set themselves a deadline of the end of next month to hammer out the broad outlines of a trade deal, after talks in Hong Kong in December failed to finish the job of rewriting the rules of the global marketplace.

WTO Director General Pascal Lamy

WTO Director General Pascal Lamy has been pushing all sides to reach agreement. "The notion that this might be the end-game has created focus and a bit of heat," he said last week.

But Mandelson stressed that it would be wrong to rush for a solution. "There's a danger that you head for the lowest-common-denominator outcome. Achieving consensus takes time; it's a slow, painful process, and it's a complicated one."

But time is running out for a successful conclusion to the 'Doha Round' of WTO talks, which was launched four years ago with the explicit aim of giving developing countries a fair chance to trade their way out of poverty.

US President George W Bush's so-called "fast track" negotiating authority to make trade agreements, granted by Congress, expires next year. With protectionist voices in Washington growing louder, particularly with regard to China, it is thought unlikely it will be renewed.

According to the report, Mandelson himself has little room for manoeuvre, with France promising to block generous concessions on Europe's agricultural subsidies, but he hinted that he could have something more to offer, and India and Brazil are ready to throw open their manufacturing and services markets to foreign companies.

"Progress does not depend on unilateral moves. Europe is prepared to give a lot, but we cannot give for nothing in return," Mandelson said.

His tone was markedly more diplomatic than when trade negotiators gathered in the Swiss ski resort of Davos in January, and disagreed publicly about who was to blame for the failure of the Hong Kong talks.