Relief was clear in Europe, where Italian Agricultural Minister Gianni Alemanno called the accord "a fundamental and vital decision for the future of agriculture, both in Europe and the world."

The WTO's 147-member General Council adopted the agreement early Sunday after a five-day negotiating drive and nearly a year of deadlock.

The breakthrough was aimed mainly at eventually cutting subsidies and reducing barriers to the multi-billion-dollar global trade in farm goods.

French Agricultural Minister Herve Gaymard welcomed the deal to continue negotiations and the fact that "the United States accepted controls on its agricultural policy it had not accepted before".

France -- a major recipient of EU farm aid -- had found itself isolated among its European Union partners as the sole hold-out at the talks, prompting several representatives of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, to criticize France's "purely political" stance.

But Gaymard said France dropped opposition "once the efforts were balanced".

The deal aims to cut export subsidies, reduce domestic support and restrict export credits -- a plan that would mainly affect wealthy European countries, Japan, South Korea and the United States.

A deadline will be set for the total elimination of farm export subsidies, and Gaymard said: "I think the deadline will be some time around 2015 or 2017, which will give us time to react."

Germany's Cooperation and Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul saw the deal as "a good signal for developing countries", while Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement said it was "a positive signal for the world economy".

Reception was mixed in Asia. In Thailand, government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair stressed the deal was "only a starting step".

"The Thai government will cooperate in pushing world trade liberalization forward through FTAs (free trade agreements), as Thailand will create agreements both bilaterally and multilaterally," he said.

China saw the accord as generally "not bad" though "the developing countries are not fully satisfied," Sun Zhenyu, Chinese ambassador to the WTO, was quoted as saying in the China Daily.

Singapore's Trade Minister George Yeo called it a "major turning point in global trade liberalization and sets the ground for advancing multilateral trade liberalization."

But Australia was lukewarm. Prime Minister John Howard said the WTO deal was basically "an agreement to talk in detail about an agreement." "It's positive news but I don't think people should get over-excited about it because there is still a long way to go."