Brazil, India, the European Union and the United States will hold a round of bilateral meetings, and maybe even as a foursome, on April 12 to try to overcome the key hurdle in the talks at the World Trade Organisation, they added.

Ministers from Australia and Japan are expected to join them later.

Together the six countries represent most of the conflicting interests in the troubled five year round of negotiations on agriculture: rich and poor nations, economies that rely heavily on farm subsidies, major farm exporters and net importers.

The deadlock over attempts to cut down subsidies and import tariffs on farm products is regarded as a major stumbling block in the Doha Round of talks on expanding free and fair trade, which also covers industrial goods and services.

The 150 WTO members relaunched negotiations earlier this year in a race to find a compromise before key domestic legislative changes in the world's top trading power, the United States, hamper the talks even further.

The participants in India are expected to include EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim and the host, India's Minister of Commerce Kamal Nath.