Senior officials from some 30 countries opened talks in Kenya on February 3 aimed at easing a bitter north-south divide over world commerce that threatens to dash efforts to seal a global trade accord by 2006.

Despite high hopes, the so-called "Doha round" of trade talks - which collapsed in 2003, notably over rich nations' farm subsidies, there were few signs the agricultural rift could be bridged.

As the two-day World Trade Organization (WTO) "mini-ministerial" got under way at this Kenyan beach resort south of the port of Mombasa, developing nations were still demanding that the subsidies take full precedence.

At the same time, the developed world is insisting that the entire range of Doha issues - agriculture, non-agricultural market access, development, trade facilitation and in particular, the service sector - be given equal time.

The informal meeting here is tasked with moving ahead on an "endgame document" - an outline of a final deal - that WTO trade ministers can endorse at a meeting in December in Hong Kong.

03 March 2005