"The trade ministers of the European Union ... see positive signals for further negotiations within the framework of the Doha Round," Austrian Labour and Economics Minister Martin Bartenstein said late Monday after an informal meeting of the ministers Sunday in Brussels.

He said that at a gathering of trade ministers over the week end at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, "it emerged that there is now willingness on the part of the United States and the G20 countries (led by Brazil, India, South Africa and China)... to move forward the non-agriculture areas in the negotiations, particularly with regard to market access for non-agricultural products and services," the statement said.

Bartenstein predicted that the Doha Round, launched in the Qatari capital in November 2001 with the aim of reducing global trade barriers, "could be finalised at the end of 2006."

Negotiations have been hampered by persistent disagreements among WTO members on the elimination of government subsidies to agriculture and steps to lower import tariffs.

In Davos about 20 ministers from some of the World Trade Organization's most influential members agreed on a timeline in a resumed series of Doha round talks.

Wealthy states are asking the G20 group of developing countries to further open their domestic markets, while the latter want are pressing rich nations to scrap farm subsidies.