The European Union and 10 Asian countries yesterday backed a new round of global trade talks but disagreed on its scope and on whether it should include the issue of labour standards.

"Ministers pledged to give the strongest support to the launch of a new round of multilateral negotiations at the World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in Seattle," economics ministers from the 15 EU nations and 10 Asian countries that make up the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) said in a statement.

The two-day Berlin meeting gave a taste of the clashes between industrialised and developing countries which can be expected when WTO members gather in Seattle late next month to chart future global trade talks.

The statement highlighted divisions between those countries - such as the EU nations and Japan - which want a comprehensive round of talks and those Asian countries wary of launching into an ambitious new process.

Ministers could not paper over the cracks between EU countries which want to raise the issue of core labour standards in the new round and developing nations which fear it could be used as a protectionist tool.

EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said the ASEM countries did not agree on everything but added: "On many of the possible topics for a new round, we've recorded extremely converging views, more convergent than I would have expected."

Delegates said the labour rights issue was a major point of controversy, with Malaysia and Indonesia voicing opposition to linking trade rules and labour rights. Poor countries fear the rich could bar their exports by arguing they were produced by workers toiling in bad conditions.

"If there is a need for countries to look at labour standards - so we can eventually eradicate the use of child labour and forced labour anywhere in the world - perhaps we should urge the International Labour Organisation to convene a special forum . . . and let us discuss it there, but not to link it with trade," Malaysian Foreign Trade Minister Mr Rafidah Aziz said.