Speaking to the Geneva-based body's top negotiating group, he said he hoped to present an initial draft within two weeks, ahead of the end-July deadline the WTO has itself for an accord.

Following the near collapse of the WTO's Doha Round of free trade talks last year, its 147 members have been struggling to achieve deals in four key areas, including farm and industrial goods, and get the negotiations back on track.

"I think that we are within striking distance of what we are trying to achieve in July," Supachai told journalists during a break in a meeting of the Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC).

Failure to meet the deadline could plunge the WTO into crisis again because the US presidential election and a change of leadership in the European Union's executive rule out more work in 2004, with no guarantee of a quick resumption in 2005.

On the basis of what the chief mediators in the various negotiating bodies reported, Supachai said that he and the President of the WTO's executive General Council, ambassador Shotaro Oshima of Japan, intended to produce a draft text.

The draft would not resolve all outstanding questions but it should serve as a "launching pad" for the final phase of the negotiations over the last half of July, he said.

WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said the blueprint should be ready before ministers from the G90 group of developing countries meet in Mauritius on July 13.

Before then, a core group of five members -- the United States, the European Union, Australia, Brazil and India -- will have more talks on agriculture in Geneva next week and their ministers will meet in Paris on July 10.

Agriculture has long been the most politically sensitive area of the negotiations. Chief mediator ambassador Tim Groser of New Zealand told the TNC that while there had been some, progress there were still major hurdles to overcome.

It was agreed the rich powers, such as the United States and the European Union, must significantly cut their farm subsidies and export subsidies should go altogether, he said.

But the EU, the main user of direct export subsidies, still needed assurances that other forms of export aids, including credits and state guarantees, would suffer the same fate.

On market access, there were signs that a so-called tiered approach, with tariffs being divided into bands to which different percentage cuts would be applied, was winning favour.