WTO farm talks chair says to revise negotiating text

By Jonathan Lynn

GENEVA (Reuters) - The mediator of farm talks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) said on Friday he would produce a revised negotiating text, opening the way for a meeting of ministers to clinch an outline deal in global trade talks.

New Zealand's WTO ambassador Crawford Falconer told reporters he would produce the new text by the end of next week or early the following week.

Falconer's revision, coupled with a parallel text on industrial goods, would trigger a process culminating in ministers taking the big political decisions in a deal in the long-running Doha round to open up world trade.

"The time is imminent to do a revision on the existing revision," Falconer said, speaking after a session of WTO agriculture negotiations.

The talks have taken on added urgency with the desire of WTO members to show they are tackling the food price crisis, even though a Doha deal could have only a long-term effect on supplies.

But that pressure has stiffened the resolve of developing countries to ensure that a deal removes distortions from world farm trade that they say benefit rich countries and discourages poor nations from growing more food.

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