Japan said Thursday it had proposed that developed nations reduce import tariffs on non-agricultural products to no more than 10 percent as the clock counts down to a key global trade conference.

Less developed countries would lower non-farm tariffs to 15 percent or less under the proposal made by Japan's trade minister, Toshihiro Nikai, at a two-day gathering in Geneva which ended Wednesday, officials here said.

WTO members are scrambling to try to resolve their differences ahead of a World Trade Organization meeting in Hong Kong next month but top negotiators in Geneva admitted they had failed to bridge key differences.

"Japan proposed tariff cuts to 10 percent or below in developed countries and to 15 percent or below in less developed countries, considering the requests by less developed countries," Hideji Sugiyama, vice minister of economy, trade and industry, told reporters here.

The European Union has also expressed support for a formula that proposes a larger reduction in remaining high tariffs on non-farm products than an alternative formula put forward by Argentina, Brazil and India.

Tokyo and other wealthy nations

regard concessions on access to industrial and service markets in developing countries as an essential counterpart to a deal on farm trade, another area of contention.

However, less developed countries are reluctant to reduce their non-farm tariffs, which give their own industries protection from cheap imports and often account for a large part of state revenues.

Japan imposes import tariffs averaging 2.3 percent on non-agricultural goods, compared with 3.2 percent in the United States, 3.9 percent in the European Union, 30.8 percent in Brazil and 34.3 percent in India, according to figures from

Japan's trade ministry based on WTO estimates.

The December 13-18 ministerial meeting of 148 WTO members in Hong Kong is meant to set the seal on four years of talks launched in the Qatari capital Doha that aim to deliver a comprehensive free trade accord by 2006.

The talks ran deep into an impasse in the Mexican beach resort of Cancun in 2003, mainly owing to differences over farm trade and market access for services, and negotiators have been struggling since to get them back on track.