World Trade Organisation members will try again early next year to rekindle global trade talks, stalled since the collapse of last September's WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico.

But trade diplomats warned yesterday that time was running out. "We need more sense of urgency," said Mr Carlo Trojan, European Union ambassador to the WTO in Geneva. "There is a serious risk that 2004 may turn out to be a lost year."

Mr Supachai Panitchpakdi, the WTO director-general, told the ruling general council that while some progress had been made since the Cancun meeting, the talks on the Doha round were not yet able to "resume full momentum" as ministers had instructed.

However, there did seem to be general acceptance that the draft for a negotiating framework that emerged in Cancun could serve as a basis for future talks.

Mr Carlos Perez del Castillo, Uruguay's WTO ambassador and this year's general council chairman, who has been playing a mediation role, said there had been little real negotiation and gaps in positions remained wide.

He called for all the Doha round negotiating groups, currently in suspension, to start work early next year, following the appointment of new chairpeople, and urged WTO members to use this "window of opportunity" to the fullest.

Trade officials argue that if the round remains stalled beyond early spring, the negotiations will go into limbo as the US presidential election campaign gathers steam, and EU enlargement and selection of a new executive Commission preoccupy the energies of Brussels.

The Doha round, launched in Qatar in November 2001, is scheduled to end in December 2004, but few believe this is now possible and 2006 is seen as a more likely date, before US negotiating authority expires in 2007.

Mr Perez del Castillo outlined ways he believed WTO members could go forward in the four most contentious areas - agriculture, industrial tariffs, cotton and the "Singapore issues" that would extend WTO rules to investment, competition policy, trade facilitation and transparency in government procurement.

On the central issue of agriculture, he said countries should commit themselves to an end date for phasing out all agricultural export subsidies, as envisaged in the Cancun text. "I feel this commitment to the elimination of all forms of export subsidies is a must for these negotiations to be successful."

On the Singapore issues, Mr Perez del Castillo repeated his proposal for further work on possible negotiations on trade facilitation and government purchasing transparency, leaving the other two for further discussion.

However, nearly 50 developing countries, including China, India and Malaysia, said only work on trade facilitation should continue.