The World Trade Organisation's chief agriculture negotiator made new suggestions that would involve cuts in US agricultural support to below 16.2 billion dollars a year, compared with a ceiling of 19 billion dollars allowed now, officials said.

Meanwhile, his counterpart leading talks on "Non Agricultural Market Access," proposed reductions in industrial tariffs charged by 27 developing nations to less than 23 percent.

The proposals in two of the three key pillars of the Doha Development Round were part of broader efforts to overcome nearly six years of failure in the Doha trade liberalisation talks.

The propositions will form the backbone of further talks over the coming weeks to broker a compromise that must be approved unanimously by the 150 WTO members -- preferably before the talks are hampered by fallout from the 2008 US Presidential election campaign.

Chief negotiators have said they intend to raise the pressure for a compromise deal in September, after countries have had time to mull over the new technical papers during a summer break.

WTO Director General Pascal Lamy called the proposals a "fair and reasonable basis" for reaching an "ambitious" agreement.

"Members will not be fully satisfied with the texts. But what separates members today is smaller than what unites them," Lamy said.

Washington said in a statement that it was examining the proposals made Tuesday, as officials scrambled to understand the real-world implications of the cuts.

"Both of the texts will demand close analysis as we develop a comprehensive US reaction," said Gretchen Hamel, a spokeswoman for the US Trade Representative.

The European Union called the texts "a useful step forward" but voiced caution.