But delegates at a meeting of the Group of 90 (G90) poorest nations acknowledged a hard approach could stop World Trade Organisation (WTO) states making progress by the end of July as hoped.

"This text will take us to the same position we were in Cancun, therefore it could make or break (global trade talks)," Mauritian Trade Minister Jaya Krishna Cuttaree said, referring to a six-page statement which outlined their common position.

"If it is to break, the poorest countries will be the losers," he told a news conference on the Indian Ocean island where he was hosting G90 trade ministers to agree a position on WTO talks aimed at lowering barriers to trade in farm and industrial goods.

WTO ministerial talks in Cancun, Mexico last September stalled and since then the WTO's 147 member countries have battled to put the talks, known as the Doha Round, back on track, even if diplomats have given up any hope of concluding the round by the original end-2004 target.

"Cancun was not a failure -- it was a realisation which brought us altogether and for the first time the developed world appeared to care about us," Cuttaree said. "If our text is taken into consideration we will be the happiest people in the world."

The statement confirmed the G90 countries were sticking to many positions they adopted in Mexico.

Negotiators are under pressure to get at least an outline pact on liberalising world trade by the end of July at a Geneva WTO meeting.

Western officials suggest the fate of the Doha Round lies in the hands of the G90 group, comprising the 79-member Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, the African Union (AU) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

They sought in Mauritius to forge a united front to press developed powers such as the United States and European Union to scrap multi-billion dollar agricultural subsidies.

Poor nations say such subsidies handicap their own agriculture, one of the few sectors in which the Third World would have comparative advantage if the playing field was level.