Friday, September 15 2006 16:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: The United States today (Sept 15, 2006) raised the hopes of revival of stalled WTO talks by hinting at cooperation on contentious agriculture and services negotiations with India, an advocate of developing countries' stance in the trade negotiations.

"There are a lot of areas services and agriculture where I think we have good potential of working together with India for some progress and we are going to keep trying to do that," Assistant secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher said.

The WTO talks hit an impasse with the key trading nations failing to arrive at a consensus on the important issue of agriculture subsidies and tariffs.

"There is still a basis for India and the United States cooperating on the WTO talks," Boucher added.

While EU has more or less agreed to the demand of developing countries on cuts in agricultural tariffs, the US has stuck to its stand on subsidies while seeking more market access from developing countries.

"I don't think we are quite at the opposing ends. There is still a basis for US-India cooperation on the WTO talks and we spend a lot of time...With the Indian side... On areas we could cooperate," Boucher said at a South Asia programme at the School of Advanced International Studies of the John Hopkins University.

He said New Delhi would also have to look at the balance of its interests and how it can move forward in the talks.