GENEVA, July 26: Ministers battled to nail down the last portion of a new global free trade pact on Saturday, as delegates voiced optimism but some emerging economies threatened to dash fragile hopes of a breakthrough.

“We are closer to a deal than we have been at any point in the last seven years,” EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told reporters ahead of afternoon talks on the third plank of the WTO’s current proposals: the services sector.

After a tentative breakthrough on Friday on the sticking points of farming and industry, ministers from leading nations returned to the table, shifting their attention on Saturday to services, a key priority for developed nations.

Ministers have been meeting at the World Trade Organisation since Monday to discuss cuts in subsidies and import tariffs with the aim of mapping out a new deal under the so-called Doha Round of WTO talks.

The Doha Round was launched in the Qatari capital seven years ago but has been deadlocked because of disputes between the rich developed world and poorer developing nations on trade in farm and industrial products.

The talks here were heading for collapse -- like so many others since Doha began in 2001 -- until a breakthrough late Friday saw the biggest powers find common ground on a draft agreement proposed by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy covering the first two areas under discussion: farming and industry.

Mandelson and other delegates at the talks expressed optimism following Friday’s breakthrough but the deal remained under pressure, as India and Argentina meanwhile stressed their reservations to the proposals already made.—AFP