The debate stirred memories of the Cancun World Trade Organisation talks in Mexico in 2003 which collapsed over concerns by poor nations over farm subsidies and high tariffs in developed nations.

In Geneva this week, the United States set the tone for another emotional debate when its chief negotiator Susan Schwab emphasized that wider opening of markets was fundamental to development.

"Suggestions that we need to 'settle' for something less than achieving substantial improvements in market access -- for the sake of having a deal at any cost -- is a clear signal that the WTO is in danger of losing its way," Schwab warned.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson called for "effective cuts" in farm subsidies and "real cuts" in tariffs for manufactured goods and farm products.

"In other words a package of real cuts for real cuts, but in a proportional way, to ensure less than full reciprocity between developed and developing countries," he said.

The stark message drew criticism from developing nations.

They saw it as a bid by the advanced nations to rewrite the principles of the Doha Round, touted as a "development round" when it began in 2001.

"There has been an attempt to convolute what's the purpose of this round," Kenyan Trade Minister Mukhisa Kituyi charged. "Market access as such is not the essence of the DDA (Doha Development Agenda) but a tool to deepen economic growth."

Kituyi co-chairs with Indonesian Trade Minister Marie Pangestu the Group of 33, an alliance of developing economies that have a majority of the world's "small, vulnerable and resource-poor" farmers.

Pangestu said:"We did not come here to renegotiate the Doha framework and we should stick to principles.

"The core of the development round is very clear -- market access balanced with development concerns of developing countries," she said.

She cited the so-called "specific flexibilities" for developing countries in the form of "special products" and "special safeguard mechanism" under the Doha Round to deal with "special circumstances," such as a sudden surge in imports.

At the Geneva talks, developing nations are being pushed to further open up their markets in return for a reduction of plum farm subsidies in rich nations.