Key members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said in Geneva Monday that they had so far made no progress on thorny issues such as agriculture in the renewed world trade talks.

The talks resumed Monday morning after ministers of the so-called G6, namely the United States, The European Union (EU), Australia, Japan, Brazil and India, failed to bridge their persistent differences on Sunday.

Pasal Lamy, the director-general of the WTO, called the two-day meeting to try to re-energize the Doha round of global trade talks.

If they cannot make any breakthrough on Monday, Lamy, who chairs the two-day negotiations, may announce a suspension of the nearly five years of the Doha Round talks, trade diplomats here indicated.

Agriculture talks, one of the major fields of the Doha Round, were launched by the WTO in 2001 with an aim to help poor members' economic development through fairer trading conditions.

The EU faces major pressure from other WTO members to open further its agricultural market.

The EU has so far put forward an offer of 39-percent cut in agricultural tariffs in exchange for further industrial market access of developing countries and slashing of farm subsidies by the United States.

But the G20 of major developing members led by Brazil and India demands a 54-percent tariff cut by the EU, while the United States insists a much higher 66-percent cut.

The complex negotiations have been stalled for a long time due to deep differences among WTO members.

The G6's consensus is considered crucial for a framework agreement among all WTO members, as they represent both the developed and developing members.

Source: Xinhua