Chances of countries striking a new world trade deal on schedule by the end of the year remain dim, despite a US bid to inject new energy into the talks, trade experts said.
Negotiations on a world trade agreement have made little progress since they collapsed four months ago at a World Trade Organisation meeting in Cancun, Mexico.
In a letter to fellow trade ministers, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick outlined ideas for reinvigorating the talks by focusing on the core topics of agriculture, manufactured goods and services.
"I do not want 2004 to be a lost year for the WTO negotiations," Mr Zoellick said.
Jeffrey Schott, a trade analyst at the Institute for International Economics, said the letter sends a clear signal that Mr Zoellick "is ready to take the lead and engage the world in meaningful negotiations."
But even if trade ministers agree to Mr Zoellick's suggestion to meet in Hong Kong before the end of the year, Mr Schott and other trade experts doubted countries could strike a final deal by then. "I think that's too ambitious," Mr Schott said.
World trade talks were launched a little more than two years ago with the goal of finishing by January 1, 2005.
After negotiations collapsed in Cancun over agriculture and other issues, Mr Zoellick said he no longer believed the original deadline could be met. Nothing in his new letter to fellow trade ministers explicitly contradicts that view.
The lack of progress in the WTO has spilled over into other US trade negotiating objectives, such as the proposed Free Trade Area of Americas agreement, which also has run into difficulty over farm trade issues.
Congressional trade leaders welcomed Mr Zoellick's letter, which came as the Bush administration is wrapping up bilateral free trade deals with Central American countries, Australia and Morocco and preparing to launch new negotiations with countries in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.
Although popular with business, the bilateral deals pale in economic significance to a new world trade agreement.
"The WTO is - and must remain - our number one priority," Senator Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, said in a statement.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said the WTO talks must make significant progress in 2004 to have any chance of concluding in coming years.
"We don't have a lot of time to waste," Mr Grassley said. He noted that Congress will have to renew trade promotion authority for the Bush administration - or whoever controls the White House after this year's election - in 2005.
That legislation, which barely passed in 2001, allows the White House to negotiate trade agreements it can submit to Congress for a yes-or-no vote without any changes.
Renewal would give negotiators until 2007 to finish a WTO deal before trade promotion authority expires.