All members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have said that they would like the Doha Round of trade talks to continue in Geneva despite a major setback in Potsdam, Germany among the G4 players, trade sources said on Friday.

Heads of delegations of the WTO's 150 members met on Friday at the WTO's headquarters to discuss the next steps of the trade talks, after negotiations among the G4 major players -- the US, EU, Brazil and India -- collapsed in Portsdam on Thursday.

The G4 had meant to bridge their gaps on crucial issues such as agriculture trade and industrial market access, which would be helpful to pave the way for convergence among all WTO members. But their three-day negotiations only resulted in the shifting of blames.

At Friday's meeting, all WTO members expressed their disappointment at the result of the Potsdam negotiations, but they also expressed their full support to the continuing multilateral process in Geneva, trade sources said.

Addressing the meeting, WTO Dierector-General Pascal Lamy reiterated that the G4 negotiations alone could not decide the fate of the Doha Round trade talks.

"This negotiation is not a negotiation among just 4 players, it is a collective endeavor among all the participants in the round --150 members and 29 acceding observers," Lamy said.

"I have repeatedly stressed that the core of negotiation is the Geneva process -- the only place where decisions can and should betaken," he added.

Lamy also urged WTO members to restore confidence and, through the multilateral process in Geneva, to make the Doha Round a success.

According to WTO sources, the chairs of different Negotiating Groups, particularly those on agriculture and NAMA (Non-Agricultural Market Access), would have a key role to play in the next two to three weeks.

The chairs are expected to present revised draft texts on agriculture and NAMA in early July, which might be the basis for compromise among WTO members.

Lamy has indicated that WTO members need to reach interim agreement on agriculture and NAMA before August so that they could conclude the whole round of talks at the end of the year or early next year.

While all WTO members said they are committed to the multilateral talks in Geneva, they know that it is very hard to reach agreement on agriculture and NAMA, given the wide differences between developed members and developing ones.

At Friday's meeting, developing members stressed again that the Doha Round is a development round and special concerns of developing members must be addressed in any final agreement.

They also urged the US, EU and other developed members to offer substantial cuts in agriculture subsidies and tariffs in exchange for proportionate concessions of developing members in industrial market access.

"If the major developed members want to take much from the developing members, they have, first and foremost, to decide what they are ready to give the developing members," the Chinese delegation said.

"Without stopping the lip service and replacing it with concrete actions by taking into serious account of the development-dimension of the round and fully accommodating the special difficulties of the developing members, we could never have a successful conclusion of the negotiations," it said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2007)