But the accord, including a key date on ending farm export subsidies, at least means negotiators can return to the WTO's Geneva headquarters with some prospect of striking a draft pact on opening up markets by their new end of April deadline.

"We are leaving here ...

with one step forward, but there remains a lot to be done," Lamy told trade ministers as the six-day conference staggered to a close on Sunday night.

"Now we have the political energy to reach a deal."

Ministers arrived in Hong Kong having already abandoned hopes of agreeing a draft accord for the Doha free trade round, launched in the Qatari capital four years ago, because of rifts between rich and poor nations, particularly over agriculture.

Such a blueprint would include all the numbers and formulas for lowering barriers to business in farm and industrial goods, and in services.

Finalising the treaty - which must be completed by end-2006 - will take several more months of painstaking work once the political trade-offs have been agreed.

If the Hong Kong meeting had ended in disarray, like its 2003 predecessor in Cancun, Mexico, the round could have simply died, taking with it hopes of boosting global trade to lift millions out of poverty.

European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, whose agreement to set a 2013 date for ending agricultural export subsidies helped avoid a breakdown in Hong Kong, warned that the pace of negotiations needed to pick up.

"You have to ask how long can we maintain enthusiasm for talks that crawl along at this pace," he told a news conference.

"My hunch is that the Doha Development Agenda (the round's official name) has about a year's energy left in it."

Boost share With the pact in Hong Kong, some of the WTO's poorest countries should boost their share of trade, while the United States agreed to speed reforms to its cotton subsidies which African producers say are ruining them.

However, many poor countries were dissatisfied with the result, despite Lamy's assertion that the round - officially billed as being about development - had swung decisively in their favour.

For Lamy, the round is 60 per cent complete, but the remaining 40 per cent could prove a huge hurdle.

Beyond setting the date on export subsidies, which the EU had already agreed to abandon in principle, the talks made little headway on the tougher issue of cutting EU farm tariffs.

Big developing countries, such as Brazil and India, which the EU and the United States are pressing to open up their manufacturing sectors, also resisted pressure to move ahead on defining how duties there will be reduced.

The United States, which like Brazil had been seeking a 2010 date to end export subsidies, said Europe would need to move on its long-protected farm market before the WTO talks could advance far.

"There are two things needed to complete the round; one is hard work and the other is political will.

We have shown we can work hard, now I think we need the necessary political will," said US trade representative Rob Portman.

But Brussels has repeatedly warned that it has little room for manoeuvre on farm trade because of resistance by France and other big agricultural producers to further concessions.

"This agreement is unequal and we are very determined in the next few months to make sure that ...

on agricultural imports, we will be able to protect our European markets," Jean-Michel Lemetayer, president of France's biggest farmers' union FNSEA, told Reuters upon his return from Hong Kong.

- Nampa-Reuters

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