Germany backed France in rejecting any cut in EU farm subsidies
amid soaring world food prices and casting doubt on the chances
of a global trade deal this year.

German Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer said hunger in
developing countries and rising food prices were no reason to
reduce payments to farmers that take nearly 40 per cent of the
EU's €115 billion annual budget.

Food scarcity was due to the population explosion and rising
living standards in emerging countries, not to EU agricultural
policies or to the drive to produce fuel from crops, he told
visiting Brussels journalists.

"I cannot understand how we can help the weak by weakening
the strong," Mr Seehofer said, dismissing calls in the European
Parliament and from some EU states such as Britain for cuts in
farm payments.

"I don't see how you can say you are going to take away
subsidies from European farmers that are made as compensation
for the environmental and food hygiene standards they have to
meet," the conservative Bavarian minister said.

"There is no progress on (industrial goods) and services. At
the same time, the EU is giving more and more ground on
agricultural issues. We believe this is not the right way."

"We share doubts about whether the US has
sufficient flexibility to achieve progress in any area."

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said at the weekend that a
breakthrough was achievable in the next few weeks.

EU trade chief Peter Mandelson was quoted as saying in Japan
that the long-awaited ministerial meeting may now take place in
June, raising the risk of the talks running out of time before
the USM elections.

Mr Lindemann also distanced himself from calls by the German
Finance Ministry for cuts in EU agriculture spending when the
current seven-year budget period expires in 2013.