The head of the World Trade Organisation yesterday pleaded with poor countries not to imperil the Doha trade round by striking intransigent negotiating positions, saying they had much to gain from the talks' success.

However, the last-minute appeal by Supachai Panitchpakdi failed to dissuade members of the Group of 90 developing nations from setting out hardline demands to be endorsed by their ministers at a meeting in Mauritius today.

Trade officials at the WTO's headquarters in Geneva said that if developing countries stood by the demands, they could scupper efforts to agree a negotiating framework for the Doha round this month, throwing its future into doubt.

In Brussels, European Union foreign ministers yesterday threw their support behind the overall negotiating strategy of Pascal Lamy, EU trade commissioner, including his offer to end farm export subsidies if other countries did likewise.

The decision should strengthen Mr Lamy's hand at the Mauritius meeting. The commissioner also confirmed that the EU had softened its position on US farm export credits and might be willing to accept less than their total elimination.

However, Mr Lamy is under pressure to yield no more ground and to secure "full parallelism" by trade partners on ending farm export support. Michel Barnier, France's foreign minister, said he expected Mr Lamy to be "on the offensive" in the talks.