A call by world leaders for greater urgency in global market-opening talks faces an early test this week when trade ministers from 30 countries meet to try to break logjams on cutting tariffs on farm and industrial goods. The ministers started gathering yesterday in this northern coastal city with a warning by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief ringing in their ears that the talks are in trouble.

WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi told trade envoys at the organisation?s headquarters in Geneva on Friday that the talks, launched in November 2001 and due to be concluded at the end of 2006, were in trouble because of a ?crisis of immobility?. Supachai, who hands over the reins of the WTO at the end of August to former European trade commissioner Pascal Lamy, said quick action was needed to get the negotiations back on track. ?Every hour must be made to count,? he said.

But Canadian Trade Minister Jim Peterson sounded a more positive note. He said negotiatiors in Geneva had made progress by helping to define the issues and expressed confidence that tentative deals to tackle farm and industrial tariffs could be struck by a self-imposed deadline of the end of the month. ?Failure is not an option,? Peterson told Reuters.

An outline pact this month is deemed crucial if negotiators are to flesh out the details in time for a meeting of ministers from all 148 WTO member states in Hong Kong in December. In the absence of preliminary accords, diplomats fear Hong Kong could be a repeat of two earlier failures ? Seattle in 1999 and Cancun in 2003 ? that set back the cause of free trade. The World Bank says the so-called Doha round could lift tens of millions of people out of poverty and trigger growth by injecting billions of dollars into the world economy. Originally scheduled for completion by 2004, the round has been dogged by squabbling over subsidies and long-protected markets.

Peterson said he took heart from ?the high-level leadership? on trade liberalisation displayed by the Group of Eight leading industrial nations at their annual summit.Trade diplomats say the task facing ministers from both rich and poor countries in Dalian is to translate this political commitment into practical guidance for negotiators in Geneva.

?The technical work is being done, but we?re at the stage where we need to see clear political signals,? one said. The immediate problem to be solved centres on the formula to be used in deciding how to cut tariffs. The differences run so deep that talks last week in Geneva on both farm and goods tariff cuts were suspended early. Six different formulae are on the table, with diplomats reporting deep divisions not only between industrial and developing countries but also cutting across both groups. ?Maybe there will be a miracle in Dalian,? said one.

<B>Juliana LIU</B>