The United States, the European Union and emerging economic heavyweights tried again on Tuesday to bridge huge differences and unblock a trade deal aimed at delivering a boost to the world's flagging economy.
On the second day of crunch talks at the World Trade Organisation, delegates were hoping for movement from richer countries to help break the deadlock.
"People are expecting a number today to get the process going," an EU diplomat said, referring to hopes the United States would announce a long-awaited figure for a new ceiling for its farm subsidies.
The week-long negotiations are seen as the last chance to save the seven-year-old Doha round of trade talks before November's U.S. presidential election which would put further talks on ice, possibly for a couple of years.
Billed as the 'development round', the new wave of trade liberalisation is supposed to help poorer countries by opening markets to their exports and reducing rich countries' subsidies.
India said the latest proposals were still skewed in favour of rich countries, and developing countries needed to protect their subsistence farmers and their infant industries.
"We hope that these flaws would get addressed, balance will be restored. during the course of the negotiations. Then and then alone can the final outcome fully reflect the development dimension of this round," Gopal Pillai, the top civil servant in India's commerce ministry, told delegates.
Pillai is heading the Indian delegation after Commerce Minister Kamal Nath returned to New Delhi for Tuesday's confidence vote over civilian nuclear cooperation with the United States that could trigger a snap election.
Many delegates in Geneva say defeat for the Congress-led government could spell an early end to the trade talks, given India's pivotal role in the negotiations.
