(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-20 10:33

BRASILIA - Brazil and the European Union voiced optimism Wednesday about an agreement in the Doha round of world trade talks.

"Don't be surprised if pretty soon we reach an agreement in the Doha round," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told reporters after meeting European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in Brasilia.

"As President Lula said, we think it is possible, if we try. The international economy needs good news," Barroso echoed Lula's remarks.

"If we finish the Doha round, it would be excellent news," said Barroso, who would wrap up a five-day visit to Brazil Friday.

The United States, the EU and the Group of 20 developing nations are currently showing goodwill, Lula said.

He added that a breakthrough was possible although major trade agreements took time to negotiate and were complicated to reach.

"I'm optimistic, just as President Barroso is, about reaching an agreement in the Doha round," he said.

The Doha Round of trade negotiations, which was launched in 2001 with the aim of bringing down trade barriers to promote development, has been stalled due to disagreements over farm subsidies and import tariffs.

Developing countries have been pressing for end to farm subsidies in  developed countries, which are in return seeking better industrial market access to the emerging economies.

Hopes for progress were re-ignited when European Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said Monday that a ministerial meeting could take place at the end of April or in early May to discuss compromise proposals on core areas of the negotiations.