The European Union could make further concessions in stalled world trade talks if the United States and emerging economies yield ground, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said today.
Speaking after the failure of another World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting on Saturday, Mr Barroso said he hoped the setback would build pressure for a deal in the next month.
"We still believe it's possible to have a successful outcome of Doha [round of negotiations] if all parties, the United States and the G20 [developing nations] as well, make an effort," he said after talks with Finnish President Tarja Halonen.
"The European Commission - the European Union because of course we need to have the member states with us as well - could do also something more if the others want to move.
"Unfortunately, we have not seen enough of that in this round in Geneva," he said.
The 25-nation EU is under pressure from the United States and developing nations such as Brazil and India to open its markets wider to food imports by reducing agricultural tariffs, but farming nations such as France, Ireland and Poland oppose further concessions.
Mr Barroso did not say how much further the EU, the world's biggest trading bloc, could go but he said WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, a former EU trade commissioner, had a clear mandate to come up with compromise proposals this month.
European ministers who attended the Geneva talks said the Union was split three ways.
A handful of countries, led by France, argued Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has exhausted his negotiating mandate; a small free-trading group led by Britain called for substantial further concessions, and a middle ground of countries saw some limited room to move.
Finland assumed the EU's rotating presidency for six months on Saturday, giving the traditionally free-trading nation the task of trying to hold the bloc together behind Mr Mandelson's negotiating strategy.