Crisis in world trade talks upsets Africa

WTO director-general Pascal Lamy summoned an urgent meeting of the organisation's trade negotiations committee in Geneva last Friday after talks between Brazil, the European Union, India and the United States - designed to clear the way for an agreement between all 150 member countries - but the meeting broke down last Thursday.

Lamy called for "urgent action to restore confidence" in the talks. He told the committee that the parties were much closer to an agreement than they had been last year, and warned them: "The world will now be watching very closely what each and every one of you will be doing."