EU trade chief Peter Mandelson raised the possibility Thursday that leaders from big trading nations may need to meet to unblock stalled WTO talks after ministers failed to make progress last week.

WTO ministers meeting last week in Geneva missed their target of agreeing on a detailed framework to complete the current round of trade liberalisation talks by the end of the year.

Mandelson said that it was

"likely" that WTO ministers would need to meet in towards the end of the month to hammer out an agreement.

However, he added: "The possibility of a meeting of the heads of state and government in some formation or other to take forward the negotiations around the time of the G8 meeting in 10 days is not ruled out."

Leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations are due to meet in Saint Petersburg on July 15-17.

The 149 members of the WTO had given themselves until the end of June to reach an interim deal on the calculations for cutting rich countries' farm subsidies and customs duties, as well as import tariffs levied on manufactured goods by emerging economies such as Brazil and India.

But they missed their target because of persistent differences over the relative concessions required of different members, with negotiators refusing to budge unless others shifted position first.