The talks, part of the WTO's Doha Round of free trade negotiations, have been making little headway ahead of an end-of-May deadline for member countries to provide new improved offers on how far they can go in liberalizing.

"We came with concerns that things were not moving fast enough, but we leave with a sense that progress is underway," said Norman Sorensen, chairman of the US-based Coalition of Service Industries.

The lobby group has been in Geneva for talks with many of the WTO's 148 member countries about the pace of the talks on services, which will be the subject of two more weeks of discussions at the Geneva-based body that run until Feb. 25.

Flanked by service industry representatives from Europe, Japan and India, as well as the United States, Sorensen said that Brazil and India, in particular, had given indications that they were serious about the need to move the services talks forward.

"We believe that both will come to the table," he said, referring to the deadline for the fresh offers.

In the case of Brazil, all it would need to do would be to offer up what it is already doing in practice when it comes to its banking and insurance markets. But India would need to go further than current practice and show itself prepared to make further steps towards liberalization, Sorensen said.

Other developing countries the lobby group hoped would help provide a "critical mass" to ensure progress in the services' talks included Thailand, Malaysia and China.

The Doha Round, launched in the Qatari capital in late 2001, also involves agriculture and industrial goods. The WTO hopes to secure an accord on a blueprint for lowering commercial barriers at a ministerial conference set for Hong Kong in December.