UPDATE: WTO Chief Postpones Meeting On Global Trade Deal

(Updates with comment from E.U. presidency; adds background, context, analysis)

GENEVA (AFP)--World Trade Organization head Pascal Lamy postponed a ministerial meeting to nail down a long-awaited global trade deal, saying key negotiating problems remain after talks with representatives.

Lamy issued a letter to negotiators late Monday after more than two hours of talks with WTO representatives on compromise texts on agriculture and industrial products.

He said the talks snagged on issues surrounding cotton, mechanisms to protect poor farmers, and proposals to make especially sharp tariff cuts to certain sectors.

"Without advancing solutions to these three, we will not stabilize the modalities texts overall," Lamy said, announcing a delay in the Dec. 13-15 talks for further consultations.

"Depending on the outcome of these consultations, a ministerial gathering could take place here in Geneva from 17 to 19 December," he added.

The WTO over the weekend published fresh texts in both the agriculture and industry components of a draft deal that were aimed at securing consensus.

But diplomats stressed that many gaps still need to be bridged to avoid yet another failure in the process, which has been given added urgency by the global slowdown.

"It is clear that we are closer to modalities today than last July. At the same time, the risks if we do not get there are higher today than they were last July," Lamy warned.

"The potential cost of a second failure in less than six months and a deteriorating economic situation call for prudence."

Diplomats questioned after their meeting with Lamy were skeptical as to whether the ministerial meeting would take place.

Many blamed the United States, India and China, whose positions have hardly altered since July.

The Doha round of talks, which started at the end of 2001 in the Qatari capital, aims to boost international commerce by removing trade barriers and subsidies.

A deal has so far proved elusive as countries are reluctant to open up their markets or reduce financial support to farmers.

Marathon Geneva talks in July collapsed amid deadlock between India and the U.S.

The European Union's current French presidency said Monday that prospects for a WTO trade liberalization deal were clouded by uncertainty, mainly over the U.S. stance.

"The reality is that there is a lot of uncertainty," French secretary of state for trade Anne-Marie Idrac told journalists in Brussels after a meeting of E.U. ministers in charge of trade.

While it was clear that Europe wants a "balanced and ambitious accord," she said, "there is great uncertainty about the positions that the United States is defending," and whether the U.S. Congress would back a deal.