Following a meeting at a retreat outside Washington, trade officials from 14 countries from across the Americas were divided on implementing a planned free trade zone designed to stretch from Alaska to southern Argentina, a market of 823 million people.

The plan, known as the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), has been a cornerstone of US foreign policy since all 34 countries in the western hemisphere -- with Cuba the notable exception -- agreed to it in 1988.

The trade officials held a meeting at the conference center in Maryland, outside Washington, that ended Friday.

At the event, US Trade Representative Richard Zoellick argued that the FTAA January 2005 deadline should be met, and that the controversial topics of dumping allegations and agricultural exports should be handled at the World Trade Organization.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim however argued that the FTAA deadlines should be postponed, and all outstanding issues -- including services, investments, and government purchases, as well as agriculture and dumping allegations -- should be handled by the WTO, or if necessary, resolve them in bilateral talks.

Officials after the meeting "were very divided" between the two positions, a South American source at the meeting told AFP.

Brazil wants to slow down the FTAA process, believing the Mercosur trade bloc -- which groups Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay -- should first be better consolidated and serve as a balance in negotiations.