June 23, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 07, 1428

BRUSSELS, June 22: British Prime Minister Tony Blair still sees a “good chance” of clinching a free-trade deal at the WTO a day after India and Brazil walked out of crunch talks, his official spokesman said on Friday.

“There is still a chance, a good chance of getting a deal if people are prepared to make the necessary moves,” Blair's spokesman told journalists on the sidelines of a summit of EU leaders in Brussels.

Nearly six years of off-and-on free-trade negotiations reached a new low on Thursday after the talks between WTO heavyweights, the United States, the European Union, Brazil and India, collapsed after the latter two walked out.

With time all but up for a breakthrough, WTO chief Pascal Lamy called for representatives from the 150 members of the World Trade Organisation to gather in Geneva for what is likely to be a sombre stock-taking session.

“The next step is Geneva,” the Blair spokesman said. “We will continue to press for people to make the final decisions that are necessary.” He said “it is in the interest not of any particular part of the world but of the global community as a whole to make such a deal, and it will be of benefit to the global community as a whole, including the developing nations.” “The stakes in this remain very high.”

Meanwhile, the 150 members of the World Trade Organisation will have three weeks in which to get multilateral talks back on track, in the wake of failed talks amongst four trading powers in Germany this week, trade sources said on Friday.

WTO director general Pascal Lamy brought all members together to discuss the way forward for the stalled Doha round of trade talks, which remain mired in an impasse over agricultural subsidies and trade tariffs among many issues.—AFP