WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi urged flexibility Thursday in trade negotiations to prevent the intransigence that thwarted the Cancun meeting in Mexico.

Supachai asked the countries of the Group of 20 (G-20) to adopt more flexible positions on agricultural issues to prevent an impasse in the World Trade Organization (WTO) trade negotiations to be held next Monday at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

"We all need signs of flexibility, otherwise, there will be no advances in Geneva," Supachai told reporters after a meeting in Brasilia.

The WTO chief arrived here to participate in the G-20 ministerial meeting on Thursday and Friday, searching for new approaches to the problems left unresolved at the fifth WTO ministerial conference in Cancun in September, mainly concerning agriculture, before the Geneva meeting.

He said the Cancun meeting failed because of the stubbornness of "each bloc" in the negotiations.

The Cancun meeting was marked by friction between the WTO's industrialized nations and the G-20 countries led by Brazil.

Farm subsidies were the principal problem that prevented the reaching of agreements in Cancun. The developing countries insisted on the elimination of the subsidies while the developed nations defended them.

Clodoaldo Hugueney, undersecretary for economic affairs of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, said the G-20 is always prepared to negotiate.

"We have flexibility in our positions, but that depends on the important actors showing the same type of flexibility," Hugueney said after a meeting with senior officials from 18 countries working out a draft agenda for the ministerial meeting.

The G-20 representatives are also set to meet with European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy on Friday.

Attending the G-20 meeting were ministers from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

(eastday.com December 12, 2003)