Developing countries slammed Washington and Tokyo at the Hong Kong meeting for baulking at allowing their goods in free of duties and quotas, saying that after years of prescribing trade liberalisation for others it was time they "swallowed their own medicine".

The United States also came under fire from West African cotton producers over the subsidies enjoyed by its farmers, but it sought to turn the spotlight back onto the EU's refusal to lower import tariffs for farm goods from developing countries.

The World Bank added its voice to the indignation expressed by least-developed countries over their treatment at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting, saying there had been much talk about development but too little action.

"In the three days the meetings have taken so far, the rich countries have transferred more than $2 billion to their farmers in various forms of support," World Bank Vice President Danny Leipziger said in a statement.

"In the same period, the 300 million poorest people in Africa have earned less than $1 billion between them."

As trade ministers haggled, more than 1,000 anti-globalisation protesters set off towards the convention centre meeting site, singing and dancing as they marched.

"WTO kills farmers," proclaimed one banner.

"We are not terrorists who have come to Hong Kong. We are poor peasants who have come out of desperation to tell people what is happening to us," said O Jong Ryul of the Korean Struggle Misson, which represents South Korean farmers and fishermen.

Police used pepper spray and batons to drive back protesters on the first two days of the meeting but they expect more intense confrontations before it closes on Sunday.

So far there has been no repeat of the rampant violence that marred a 2003 WTO meeting in Cancun, Mexico, where talks on a deal to reform world trade and lift millions out of poverty almost collapsed.

CREDIBILITY AT STAKE

The Hong Kong meeting was initially intended to approve a draft trade treaty freeing up business in farm and industrial goods and services, known in the jargon as the Doha round.

That plan was abandoned because of differences between rich and poor -- particularly the EU's refusal to lower farm import tariffs without offers of greater access to developing nations' markets for goods and services -- though the 149 WTO member states still hope to reach a deal by the end of 2006.

"If we cannot make all the progress we'd hoped for in Hong Kong, and I'm afraid that we won't, I feel strongly we should set a date before we leave here and set a work plan in place to be sure that we don't take the pressure off after Hong Kong," US Trade Representative Rob Portman told a news conference.

Saddled with its farm trade impasse, the WTO had hoped to come away from Hong Kong with at least a duty-free and quota-free deal for the 49 poorest nations and their 700 million people.

But the United States has been reluctant to allow poor exporters free access to sensitive areas such as textiles, sugar and cotton, and Japan does not want to open up its rice market.

Zambian Trade Minister Dipak Patel, who is also coordinator of the WTO's poorest member states, slammed the United States and Japan for seeking exemptions to protect their own industries.

"Developing countries, forced to liberalise by developed countries, have always been told that liberalisation will deliver gains ... It is not too late for developed countries to swallow their own medicine," he said in a statement.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said the development package was "a clear deliverable" from the Hong Kong meeting.

"The credibility of this ministerial conference is at stake ... we should not drag our feet," he told a news conference.

But the EU was itself under pressure at the talks for refusing to endorse a 2010 date for ending farm export subsidies.

The 25-nation EU says Washington must first indicate how it plans to reform its food aid system, arguing that -- because the aid is in kind rather than cash -- it amounts to as great a subsidy for US farmers as European export subsidies.

The United States parried pressure from African countries to end its cotton subsidies, which they say are devastating their economies, saying that it could not take such a step without a move from the EU to open further its farm markets.

"I'm a bit surprised that cotton was suddenly taken hostage by the Americans," EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel told a news conference. "This is a separate issue."