GENEVA - WTO head Pascal Lamy late on Monday decided to put off by a week a possible ministerial meeting to nail down a global trade deal, as key problems remained, he said in a letter to negotiators.

Mr Lamy took the decision after a more than two-hour meeting with some 30 representatives of the World Trade Organisation to discuss compromise texts on agriculture and industrial products that would serve as a basis for higher-level negotiations.

Three subjects appeared to be particularly delicate during the meeting on Monday, Mr Lamy said in the letter which was sent to delegation chiefs late on Monday and released to the press.

'I believe that there are three areas - sectorals, SSM (special safeguard mechanism) and cotton where there needs to be some serious political testing before we can convene a ministerial meeting ... without advancing solutions to these three, we will not stabilise the modalities texts overall,' Mr Lamy said.

This was why he decided to postpone the ministerial gathering originally mooted for December 13-15, with further consultations planned in the meantime.

'Depending on the outcome of these consultations, a ministerial gathering could take place here in Geneva from 17 to 19 December.'

Trade sources said earlier that the key sticking points between developed and developing nations centered on cotton, a measure aimed at protecting poor farmers from import surges - the so-called 'special safeguard mechanism' - and the sectoral initiative, which proposes specific sectors to be submitted to sharper tariff cuts.

The World Trade Organisation over the weekend published fresh texts in both the agriculture and industry components of a draft deal that were aimed at securing consensus.

But diplomats stressed that many gaps still needed to be bridged to avoid yet another failure.

'It is clear that we are closer to modalities today than last July. At the same time the risks if we do not get there are higher today than they were last July. The potential cost of a second failure in less than six months and a deteriorating economic situation call for prudence,' Mr Lamy said. -- AFP