Mandelson expected EU ministers to reaffirm a common strategy in the coming global bargaining.

"We have one mandate. We have been operating within it and will continue to do so. We have one set of negotiating directives from the member states. I do not envisage those changing," Mandelson said.

However, some analysts say the EU's negotiating power risks being undermined by the discontent from France, one of the EU's most protectionist countries which now holds the rotating EU presidency.

In theory, each of the 152 WTO members, including France, can block a deal on the Doha Round.

As Europe's biggest agricultural country as well as the largest beneficiary of EU farm subsidies, which amount to billions of euros every year, France has been reluctant to let the EU reduce the generous handouts to French farmers, which the expected global trade deal will necessarily require.

The WTO Doha Round trade talks, launched in the Qatari capital in late 2001 to slash farm subsidies, remove tariffs and other trade barriers so as to help reduce poverty and spur economic growth in developing countries, have repeatedly missed deadlines in the past seven years.

And the remaining disputes are not likely to be solved very easily without substantial compromises, especially from the developed countries, analysts say.

While the developing countries are urging rich nations to lower farm subsidies and open markets for their agriculture goods, the developed countries are demanding more market access for their industrial products.

At the same press conference with Mandelson, the EU's top farm official Mariann Fischer Boel warned that an agreement on farm subsidy cuts needs to be made this month or talks would likely be frozen for the foreseeable future.

"We intend to be constructive and engaged, but we will not accept a deal at any price," she warned.

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2008)