GENEVA, July 27: World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy on Thursday urged governments to do all they can to overcome their differences and end a freeze in free-trade negotiations.

Lamy told a WTO session he did not “propose any new deadline or a date for resumption” of the Doha Round talks, which broke down on Monday because six leading trading powers were unable to reach a crucial compromise on lowering barriers to commerce.“This can only come when the conditions exist to permit renewed progress, and this means changes in entrenched positions,” Lamy said.

Several countries attacked the so-called G6 for refusing concessions to open the way for a multilateral trade treaty and said that progress made so far must be kept alive and ready for a resumption.

The ruling General Council of the 149-nation WTO “took note” of a report by Lamy, in which he reaffirmed his recommendation, made on Monday, to freeze the faltering negotiations. By doing so, the body effectively endorsed his view.

Lamy’s call to suspend the talks followed the acrimonious collapse of a meeting on Monday, which sent the WTO’s five-year search for a new global trade deal toppling towards total failure.

“There remains a widespread determination, despite this setback, to bring the round to a successful conclusion,” Lamy said.

“This is the time of hard thinking and deep reflection. It is the time for quiet thinking as opposed to megaphone diplomacy,” he added.

Major powers, particularly the United States and European Union, have been bitterly trading blame in the wake of the collapse.

A string of countries who spoke at Thursday’s session said they regretted that heavyweight WTO members Australia, Brazil, the EU, India, Japan and the US had been unable to reach a deal.

Several senior delegates said they hoped that what had emerged from the negotiations so far would not be lost.

New Zealand ambassador Crawford Falconer, who has been steering attempts to reach a farm trade deal, said that nations should “remain conscious of the progress” made over the past two years.

The Doha Round kicked off in the Qatari capital in 2001, with the goal of reducing subsidies, customs duties and other trade barriers and using commerce to give developing countries a boost.

There was little real movement until 2004 and 2005, when key trading nations began coming forward with proposals -- even though many of these were seen as offering too little and asking too much.

“I would, above all, urge members not to retreat from where we had got up to that point at least,” Falconer told the session.

Senior negotiators have warned that it is impossible to say when negotiations could restart. The Doha Round was meant to yield a trade treaty by the end of 2004, but the target was later shifted to December 2006.

Analysts forecast a thaw may not be possible until 2009 because of domestic political concerns, notably the electoral calendar in the United States.

They have warned that trading nations may meanwhile shift their focus to negotiating more bilateral and regional deals, creating a complex web of conflicting interests in global commerce.

The WTO talks came unstuck because of three major issues: domestic farm subsidies provided by the United States, import tariffs on agricultural goods levied by the European Union, and market access in developing countries for industrial goods and services.—AFP