Indian communist leaders say they want the new Congress government led by Manmohan Singh to take a tougher stand in World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks over agriculture, as the livelihood of millions of poor farmers is at stake.

"We won't have any flexibility in agriculture talks," Biswajit Dhar, head of WTO studies at New Delhi's Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, said Thursday.

"It'll be impossible to have any movement on WTO issues without anything in return," Dhar said.

"Until now our position has been that we've made some commitments and been trying to make progress around the structure of agreements based on that. The Left has indicated we need to go beyond the structure," Dhar said.

Differences over the future of agricultural export subsidies have been a key sticking point stalling efforts to eliminate global trade barriers through the so-called Doha Round of WTO negotiations.

India is a key player in global trade forums and banded with other developing countries at the failed WTO talks in Cancun last September.

Agriculture is suddenly sharply in focus in India due to the stunning upset electoral defeat of the ruling Hindu nationalists who were swept out on a tide of rural anger about not benefiting from India's economic boom.

Communist leaders, whose support is crucial to the Congress government to remain in power, said India's whole WTO stance should be revisited.