TRADE. Six of the world?s biggest trading powers launched two days of talks on Friday, making a new bid to narrow differences over a global trade deal that is running out of time. With an April 30 deadline fast approaching for agreement on key parts of a new round by the 149-country World Trade Organisation (WTO), top negotiators from the European Union, the United States, Brazil, India, Japan and Australia met in London. EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said the meeting had begun ?in a business-like manner with a good atmosphere?. But he played down any expectations of a breakthrough, saying the discussions were simply a further step in the negotiations. ?Our job is to build consensus in order to help the wider membership of the WTO to reach agreement later on,? he said. The WTO?s Doha round was launched in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States as a way of giving the global economy a boost and spurring development in some of the world?s poorest countries. But wrangling between the EU and the United States, developed and developing countries and also between poor countries has combined to slow the talks. Several deadlines for the Doha round have already been missing but negociators say it risks collapse altogether if a deal is not reached soon because US President George W. Bush loses ?fast track? powers to approve trade deals in mid-2007. To get the small print of a deal ready by then, the main points must be settled soon, the negociators say.

US PORTS. A vote on a provision to block Arab-owned Dubai Ports World from managing US ports is still planned for next week in the US House of Representatives, despite the company?s announcement that it intends to shed the US holdings, the spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert said on Friday. ?It?s a smart move to keep it (the provision) in there, in case the Dubai thing doesn?t work out,? Ron Bonjean, spokesman for the Illinois Republican, told Reuters. The House proposal to stop the state-owned United Arab Emirates company from managing six US ports was attached to a must-do bill providing more funds for the war in Iraq, in a committee vote last week. That sent the measure to the House floor, where a vote is expected on Wednesday or Thursday, Bonjean said. While lawmakers have the right to propose striking the portion of the bill affecting Dubai Ports World, the spokesman said he was not aware of anyone proposing to do that. Bowing to political pressure, Dubai Ports World said on Thursday it would transfer US operations of port terminals ? which it had just acquired ? to a US entity. DP World made the announcement after it became clear lawmakers in both the House and Senate who say they are worried about port security intended to kill the deal with legislation. But Bonjean said the House vote would go ahead, and if DP World does in fact divest itself of its US holdings, the provision in the House legislation ?would be redundant.?