LONDON, Jan 8: Global trade talks are on the brink of failure and will only succeed with the support of US President George W. Bush, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told The Times in an interview published on Monday.

“We are on a knife-edge,” Mandelson told the newspaper before he and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso meet Bush and US Trade Representative Susan Schwab in Washington later Monday.

“We have to engage President Bush personally because this deal can only be done with his authority,” he added.

Mandelson's comments showed a stronger sense of urgency than those he made in Brussels Saturday, when he said the meetings were an “opportunity for the EU and the US to invigorate the multilateral Doha trade talks”.

He also spoke of the hope that both parties will “signal strong new political commitment to rapid progress” to secure a deal to help lift billions of people in the world's poorest nations out of poverty.

One unnamed official close to Mandelson told The Times: “We see this as our last big shot at trying to get the Americans to do something on the Doha Round.”—AFP