The European Commission has come under fire from some non-governmental organizations and EU lawmakers for driving a hard bargain in the talks with the 78 African, Caribbean and Pacific nations in the so-called ACP group.

"We have no intention to force ACP countries to take commitments against their will," Mandelson told the European parliament in Strasbourg during a debate.

The EU and the ACP are struggling to make progress to conclude the new pacts by the end of the year, when a current preferential market access accord is due to expire, because they were ruled illegal by the World Trade Organisation.

Mandelson stressed that the new agreements would have to require ACP countries to open some of their markets to EU exporters if the revised pacts were to avoid fresh trouble with the WTO.

The new agreements "need to be WTO compliant, therefore including trade opening on both sides, for both in trade in goods and trade in services," he said.

However, he added that ACP countries' commitments to open their markets would not need to match the EU's efforts in opening its vast markets more to them.

With the year-end deadline looming ever larger, the EU sought in April to boost the negotiations with an offer to scrap all tariffs and quotas on ACP countries' exports with the exception of sugar and rice.

Some NGOs and members of the European Parliament have criticized the Commission because sugar and rice are important products for these countries and because they would have to open their markets more to EU goods.

"The ACP countries' will to conclude the agreements needs to be supported and pressure on our partners needs to be lifted," said socialist MEP Margrietus Van Der Berg.