Peter Mandelson is looking to a meeting between leaders of the European Union and Latin America in Peru this week to help to break the two-year deadlock in the Doha Round of international trade liberalisation talks.

Speaking before the negotiations scheduled for Friday in Lima, the European Trade Commissioner said: “I hope we can use the meeting to give new momentum to the Doha talks in Geneva.

Around the table in Lima will be some countries which can make a key contribution to the multilateral trade round.”

Mr Mandelson singled out Brazil as a key player in the changing world economy. “Brazil is set to be one of the big winners from this round and so it is reasonable to expect Brazil to make a contribution commensurate with its ability to pay,” he said.

After the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks, launched in 2001, collapsed in acrimony two years ago, political impetus to open national markets worldwide to trade in services and agricultural and industrial goods has been virtually invisible.

Negotiators believe that the next few weeks could be critical. If the basic shape of an agreement can be settled by the end of June, technical details could be agreed before George W. Bush stands down as President of the United States in January.

Despite fears that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential contenders, might renege on any international trade commitments made in Geneva, should they be elected, Mr Mandelson said last week that Democrat leaders had given him commitments that they would honour any deal.

If the window of opportunity over the next few weeks is missed, there is little prospect of kickstarting the negotiations for at least two years, because political changes are inevitable in two of the main players, the US and the EU.

A new US administration, whether Republican or Democrat, will need time to bed down. So, too, will the EU. Mr Mandelson leaves office in just over 15 months and leadership of the main European institutions will change during this period.

Added to this, the mandate of Pascal Lamy, the respected Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, ends in 2010.

It is Mr Lamy who will have to decide whether to convene talks in the next few weeks for a final make-or-break session. If successful, the meeting could open the way to reducing national trade barriers.

To try to inject momentum into the Geneva negotiations, Mr Mandelson has called for new negotiating texts on the sensitive issues of cutting tariffs on agricultural and industrial imports.

His move reflects behind-the-scenes progress on sensitive farm issues in recent weeks as Mr Lamy tries to step up the tempo of the discussions.

Last year's decision by the US to reduce its subsidies to farmers has removed one big sticking point. Last month, six of the big players in the Doha negotiations - the EU, the US, Japan, Brazil, Australia and Canada - reached agreement on how to treat sensitive agricultural products.

Mr Mandelson accepts that there is no consensus on how to treat tropical products, but insists that this should not stall wider agricultural talks. He is also continuing to press Europe's trading partners, particularly in the developing world, to open their markets to EU manufacturing and services exports.

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