Trade Minister Mark Vaile said he would propose a compromise over farm aid in an effort to break the deadlock between the European Union and United States.

He said the extended meeting of the 18-member Cairns Group of agricultural exporters would aim to "inject some energy" into the Doha Round of talks, which collapsed last week.

World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab and US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns had indicated they would attend, Vaile said. EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has also been invited.

Vaile's office said Canberra was also "looking at the possibility" of inviting the major Group of Six (G6) trading powers "to meet on the margins."

As well as Australia, the G6 includes the United States, EU, Japan, India and Brazil.

"The round's not dead but it really is only hanging by a thread," Vaile told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

Vaile's office confirmed a report in The Australian newspaper that Canberra was proposing a compromise that would involve the United States cutting its farm subsidies by a further 5.0 billion dollars and the EU reducing its tariffs by a further 5.0 percent.

Australia hopes that any movement by Brussels and Washington could breathe new life into the free trade negotiations, which opened in the Qatari capital in 2001.