"I don't think in the end agriculture will be the sticking point. It's really the balance between what we do on agriculture and industrials, and what we're trying to do within that balance to address services" that is key, Simon Crean told AFP in an interview during a visit to Brazil.

Crean was speaking after attending a meeting of ministers from the Cairns Group of agricultural exporting countries in neighboring Uruguay this week, and discussions with Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, whose country is a key G20 leader involved in the trade talks.

While no breakthrough was evident in ongoing talks looking to revive negotiations under the aegis of the World Trade Organization, some distance has been narrowed between developed and developing countries on applying tariffs to farm imports to protect national argicultural sectors.

"Everyone accepts there needs to be a mechanism that enables developing countries to deal with sudden surges," Crean said. "The challenge is to ensure that that mechanism doesn't interfere with normal trade."

The challenge now was to address several issues at once to clear obstacles to restarting the global talks, he said.

He said the Cairns Group discussions represented a "kickstart" and noted that no country wanted to backtrack on points of agreement already reached.

Even if the Doha round of discussions between governments did not result in an early agreement, Crean said he understood G20 leaders -- Brazil among them -- were ready to step in if differences could be sufficiently reduced.

To that end, talks in the coming months within the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the G20 group of developed and developing nations would be important, he said.

The Cairns Group on Tuesday said: "Concluding the Doha Development Agenda must remain the top priority of WTO members."

The group comprises Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Uruguay.

The United States, European Union, Japan and Mexico also attended the Uruguay talks as guests.

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