SOME FLEXIBILITY is emerging in talks over a dispute that scuppered a push for a global trade pact in July, but it is still too early to tell if a deal can be done, Europe's trade chief said yesterday.

An 11th-hour effort by trade ministers to settle the core elements of the World Trade Organisation's Doha round flopped in July when the United States and India clashed over a mechanism to protect developing countries from food import surges.

Exploratory talks last week by envoys in Geneva gave "some cautiously encouraging signals of flexibility", European trade commissioner Peter Mandelson told the European Parliament.

"It is still early days and we will need to see if senior officials are given the leeway they will certainly need to tease out a technical solution which satisfies all parties," said Mr Mandelson, long one of the keenest supporters of a WTO deal.

"This will also give us indications as to the political will to continue in the US and in India, amongst others."

The United States said in July that demands for protection against food import surges by developing countries, chief among them India, would deny its farmers new export markets.

- (Reuters)