CORPORATE greed was the real winner at this weeks conference of the Trade Organisation, according to the Third World Network (TWN), a body linking non governmental organisations in Asia, Africa and South America.

Based in Malaysia, the country which has protested loudest at the EU-US dominance of the agenda for the first WTO ministerial meeting, the body complained: "It is likely that the rich countries will get their way, once again ignoring the needs and problems of the South."

The interests of the poorer countries had been brushed aside and in the end, the real winners of the ministerial conference will be corporate greed, while the interests of the people, especially in developing countries, will be sold out further", the group said in a statement.

The statement also echoed the complaints of the 49 Lease Developed Countries among the 128 nations at the WTO conference that they had been excluded from decision making and that the big economic powers had made the meeting "secretive and undemocratic".

However, Mr Frederik Nzabampema of Burundi said: "We gain if we can gain market access" from the WTO.

The TWN said the process adopted at the meeting was designed to make it easier for the major countries to "persuade", pressurise and coerce the developing countries to agree to their agenda. The final declaration would be thrown to developing countries, who had been left outside by an elite caucus "to accept and sign on".

Another protest came from a leading woman's action group, which said the role of women in the world economy was being ignored. "Economic policy making has an impact on women, yet there is absolutely no gender analysis for women's concerns being taken up whatsoever," Ms Myriam Vander Stichele, research co ordinator of the Amsterdam based Transnational Institute, said.

She said 70 per cent of the world's poorest 1.3 billion people were women. They were at great risk from exploitation and greater competitive pressures would expose (hem further still.