"I am optimistic that we will get there," the Uruguayan chairman of the World Trade Organisation's ruling general council, Carlos Perez del Castillo, told reporters.

"The consultations are still going on."

Trade envoys have voiced hope a deal could be reached before ministers meet in Cancun, Mexico, in two weeks, and also in time for approval by the WTO general council, which has been meeting here since Tuesday.

"Let's hope that we will get some news during the morning," Perez del Castillo said early Wednesday, adding that he hoped the general council would wrap up its discussions by the end of the day.

A day earlier however, the relief group Oxfam International said the proposed solution would further complicate the issue.

Oxfam representative Celine Charveriat said the plan under discussion focused on a cover note designed to ease concerns by the United States.

The note, Charveriat explained, would take the form of a so-called chairman's statement, which she said contained "burdensome conditions" on top of what was already a restrictive text.

As such, the deal was unlikely to benefit the developing countries it was designed to help, she said.

The talks aim to agree on a system that relaxes global patent rules to enable poor countries without a pharmaceutical industry to import cheaper generic copies of patented medicines for illnesses such as AIDS or malaria.

Victims of the diseases in developing countries, mainly in Africa, stand to gain the most from a deal, which was blocked in December by the United States because of differences over the scope of illnesses to be covered.

Under pressure from US pharmaceutical groups, Washington was worried the new system could be interpreted to include medicines for non-infectious diseases such as impotence or obesity.

It also feared Brazilian and Indian generic producers could flood the global market with cheaper versions of patented medicines if they were re-exported from initial destinations.