BRUSSELS, Sept 23: European Union trade chief Pascal Lamy was downbeat on Monday on prospects for an early revival of failed talks on expanding global trade, saying the 15-nation EU needed first to analyze what went wrong at the World Trade Organization’s meeting in Cancun last week.

“We are all having a post-mortem...this will be our main preoccupation for the weeks ahead,” Mr Lamy told reporters. The internal discussions on why Cancun failed would take time, he warned. Any decision to “refloat the WTO round for a reasonably early conclusion” would require close and careful transatlantic work, Mr Lamy said.

Contacts with the Group of 21 developing nations which blocked final agreement at the Cancun meeting would also be necessary, he insisted. “The EU would also revisit its earlier refusal to negotiate regional and bilateral free trade agreements with countries. This is part of our review,” he added.

The EU trade chief denied allegations that the EU and the US had ganged up against developing nations in Cancun, saying that the meeting had been marked by discussions among four groups of key players: Europe, America, the Group of 21 and the African Group.

The 146-nation WTO talks in Cancun collapsed on September 14 after rich and poor countries failed to agree on eliminating farm subsidies and the EU calls for negotiations on new investment rules. Mr Lamy denied that the EU had shown a lack of flexibility in Cancun.