The EU should give poorest countries free access to its markets to dispel their suspicions that the bloc wants to raise barriers by linking labour standards to trade, according to Sweden's trade minister.

Mr Leif Pagrotsky said the EU should make the offer when the WTO talks open in Seattle.

"We should do so . . . not in return for other offers that they make. We should give this as a unilateral offer," he said at the meeting of ministers from the EU and 10 Asian countries in Berlin.