A deal liberalising global financial services depends on political will, the World Trade Organisation chief said on Friday, as holdout countries such as Brazil started rolling out fresh offers five days before a deadline.

"By the close of business today we will have a substantial harvest on the table, one which we cannot afford to lose," the WTO director general Mr Renato Ruggiero said at a meeting of chief negotiators held to take stock yesterday.

"The negotiators will spend some time reviewing these new offers, but we have reached the point where the decisions on this deal will be mainly political."

The WTO has lobbied the US to ensure its backing for a deal it had previously opposed.