By Jonathan Lynn GENEVA (Reuters) - A frustrated mediator at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks on industrial goods suspended the negotiations on Monday, complaining that delegates were failing to negotiate and unwilling to compromise. The move by Canada's WTO ambassador Don Stephenson, who chairs the industry negotiations, deals a potentially heavy blow to the WTO's Doha round just as the long-running talks enter a crucial phase. But it could also be a last-ditch attempt by Stephenson to jolt rich and poor countries out of their entrenched positions, given the possibility in the next few weeks of a meeting of ministers to clinch an outline global trade deal. "It is... my intention to convene no further meetings until members signal to me that they have achieved some convergence on the issues and that they would like an opportunity to bring that convergence to the wider membership," Stephenson, who chairs the industrial goods talks, told delegations. READY TO TALK Stephenson emphasised he was ready to facilitate negotiations between delegations, including the senior officials from national capitals who are gathering in Geneva next week to prepare the ground for the possible ministerial meeting. The Doha round was launched in late 2001 to boost the world economy and help developing countries export their way out of poverty by opening up world trade. But it has missed numerous deadlines and faced near collapse since then. Now, after intensive negotiations over the past nine months in agriculture and other areas trade diplomats and officials say a deal is within sight. Getting the WTO's 152 members, whose competing interests reflect and cross the rich-poor divide, to agree on a deal was never going to be easy. Especially as it encompasses the full spectrum of trade in food, industrial goods such as cars and textiles, and services such as banking and telecoms, as well as the rules governing subsidies, tariffs, unfair imports and intellectual property. The talks have taken on added urgency as members want to finish the whole deal this year, before a new U.S. president arrives with possibly other priorities than trade. To leave enough time, ministers must agree the outlines in the coming weeks, deciding the headline cuts and trade-offs in industrial and agricultural tariffs and supports. The blueprint for that meeting is the new negotiating proposals issued two weeks ago by Stephenson and his farming counterpart, New Zealand's WTO ambassador Crawford Falconer. On farming, delegations have continued to narrow the gaps, even though big gaps remain on the special treatment different rich and poor countries want to protect their crops. But on industrial goods, members still disagree over the scope of tariff cuts for rich and poor countries, and of the waivers that developing countries can use to shield their fledgling industries. UNLOCK ACCESS Rich countries such as the United States say a deal will only be possible if it unlocks access to developing country markets for manufactured goods in return for the cuts in farm tariffs and support they are prepared to make. They fear that Stephenson's current proposals may allow developing countries to carve out entire sectors, and give new members, including export superpower China, too much leeway. Developing countries, many of them food exporters, say their willingness to open up industry is tempered by the desire of many rich nations to keep their farm markets protected. Rich countries also want poorer ones to liberalise service sectors, which account for two thirds of output but have less political clout than the core areas of agriculture and industry. But while some developing countries say that the forthcoming ministerial meeting should concentrate on industry and farming, others, such as India, have ambitions in services too. They want rich countries to let in more temporary workers in areas such as health and construction, and want more freedom to offer services from abroad, like call centres and outsourcing. The services negotiations depend heavily on bilateral deals between interested countries, rather than the global negotiations on tariff cutting that characterise the core areas. No such offers have been made since late 2005, but ministers are likely to agree a deadline for new offers of two-to-three months after they reach an outline deal in the core areas, officials said. In the meantime, ministers will signal their intentions to each other at a pledging conference on services that would coincide with the meeting on agriculture and industry and let them point to potential gains when selling a deal at home. | 
