U.S. mulling WTO offer on key India services demand

"They're (the EU) probably not going to give the final figure because that's probably going to be the last thing they give in the negotiations in this round," said Pascal Kerneis, managing director of the European Services Forum.

WAIT AND SEE

Although India has made "very good offers" to open its market in areas such as telecommunications, distribution, computer-related services and energy services, it has not done so in financial services, Vastine said.

India's Commerce Minister Kamal Nath told a news conference India needed to see what the United States and the EU were prepared to do on the visa issue before he could make his offer on financial services.

"Let me make it clear India has no demand on immigration," Nath added, saying New Delhi only wanted to make sure burdensome rules do not block Indian professionals from performing contract work in the United States and the EU.

At the same time, he said the outcome of services negotiations would be critical in India's assessment of proposed deals on agriculture and manufacturing.

The services talks suffered a setback on Wednesday, however, when Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela blocked adoption of a report laying out the future path for the negotiations, a participant in the meeting said.

The four Latin American countries argue that a separate formal negotiating document on services is not needed.