WTO rejects US farm subsidies

Negotiators have been urging a quickening of pace after the first two days of crucial WTO talks in Geneva.



The Brazilian government said the US offer to cut aid to its farmers to $15 billion a year is still too high.



There has been no immediate solution to the long-running dispute over bananas that threaten to derail the talks on a new global trade pact.



The row turns on the terms for European Union imports and involves producers from Latin American countries and the United States, on one side and African Caribbean Pacific states on the other.



EU officials in Geneva said they hope to make contact with some of the banana countries in the next 24 hours, to see what prospects there are for working together, although no formal negotiations have been scheduled.