The head of the World Trade Organisation has called a meeting of ministers for late July in a high-risk attempt to rescue the beleaguered Doha round of global trade talks.
Pascal Lamy, director-general of the WTO, last Wednesday told ambassadors in Geneva that ministers would meet on July 21 and the chances of a breakthrough that could successfully conclude the talks were higher than 50 per cent.
But some trade officials warned that large negotiating gaps remained between the leading countries and said Mr Lamy's decision to call a meeting was a gamble that could lead to a high-profile implosion.
Mr Brown said that failure to conclude an agreement "could deal a potentially crippling blow to the future of the WTO".
A spokesman for Susan Schwab, the US trade representative, said: "While there has been progress in recent days, in the weeks leading up to the ministerial meeting there still is a lot of work and still important differences in agriculture, NAMA [industrial goods] and services."
The European Commission (EC) said other countries had to show the same flexibility in making concessions as had the European Union (EU).
Mr Lamy called for a meeting of 30 to 35 ministers at the WTO in Geneva, representing a broad range of countries with different interests in the talks.
The previous three summers have failed to push the talks forward. There was deadlock in 2005 ahead of an unproductive meeting of the full WTO membership in Hong Kong that year, and negotiations were suspended after they collapsed in disarray in 2006, with the EU and US blaming each other for failing to compromise on agricultural reform.
Last summer a meeting of the "group of four" negotiating partners - the EU, US, Brazil and India - broke down in acrimony amid accusations of bad faith.
Mr Lamy's call follows what some trade diplomats say is progress in recent days in resolving disputes over tariff cuts for industrial goods between rich countries and big emerging markets such as Brazil.
Draft negotiating texts released this year by the chairs of the two most contentious parts of the talks - industrial goods and agriculture - were met by criticism from a range of angles as ministers either argued that the texts required too much liberalisation or not enough.
Updated versions of the draft negotiating texts are to be released before next month's meeting. (Under syndication arrangement with the FE)
