A powerful alliance of poor and developing countries under the umbrella of Group of 21 (G21) has threatened to block a deal rather than accept a bad one.

Poor nations have accused Europe and the United States of trying to break up the new alliance bent on rewriting global trade rules.

The G21-- spearheaded by China, India, Brazil and South Africa -- has threatened the traditional dominance of rich countries during the trade talks. It has demanded that rich countries slash more than $300 billion a year in subsidies -- more than six times the amount they give to poor countries as aid -- which protect their farmers from cheaper imports and let them export to nations whose farmers get no such support.

The big question now was whether the alliance could remain united, or whether "the US would pick countries off one by one", a spokeswoman for aid agency Action Aid said.

So far, the G21 was standing firm, and new members were expected to join in the next few days, she said. The G21 could shift the power at the 146-nation WTO talks towards the poor world for the first time, she added.

The G21 says the rich world needs to keep the promises it made two years ago to cut tariffs.

The EU and US say poorer countries must agree to broader legal and commercial reforms in return for any concessions on farming.

The 4,700 delegates in Cancun are keenly aware that, with US elections due next year and the EU preoccupied with the entry of 10 new members, failure now could scuttle chances of a deal for several years.

US President George W Bush has telephoned presidents of some countries including Brazil to make sure that no new countries side with the G21. Arab states are also under pressure to stay away from the grouping.

The Prothom Alo roving Correspondent Saugat Ali Sagor reported that the Canadian trade minister held an exclusive meeting with Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury of Bangladesh, which is the coordinator of 49 least developed countries (LDCs), and proposed him to persuade the LDCs into accepting the Singapore issues. He also quoted Khosru as saying that he did not agree to the Canadian suggestion.

Action Aid has accused the US delegation at Cancun of attempting to alternately cajole and bully poor nations into leaving the G21, an accusation the Americans have denied.

The charity claims US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick attempted to bribe some countries into dropping out of the group with trade incentives.

It said Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala had been offered increased trade quotas if they quit the alliance.

A spokesman for the US delegation said: "This is an outrageous accusation that is groundless."

Amid such scepticism, the US has indicated it is willing to adjust domestic agricultural supports in exchange for reduced support in other countries and increased market access for US agricultural goods, particularly in developed countries, the US Department of Agriculture Under-secretary JB Penn made this disclosure at a briefing.

He acknowledged that US tariffs on some products -- sugar, peanuts, tobacco, dairy products -- "are much higher, but we have said that everything is on the table (in this round of negotiations) and if others are willing to liberalise, then we are quite willing to talk about our sensitive products as well".

EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fishchler said Europe also was ready to make a deal but called for concessions from the other side.

"We are not so arrogant to believe that it is enough for the EU and the United States to cook up a deal," he said.

On the other side, ministers of developing countries said the whole point of the talks was to help developing nations benefit from greater world trade, so the rich countries had the most to give up.

"Those who subsidise must make a greater effort to level the playing field," Argentina's chief negotiator Martin Redrado said.

In other developments, the WTO has agreed to admit Nepal and Cambodia as new members. They are the first countries classified as least developed to join the trade body since it was founded in 1995.

The street protests that marked the first day of the meeting, including the suicide of a South Korean farmer on Wednesday, have died down. A Greenpeace protester from Mexico disrupted a US press briefing, leading the WTO to ban all non-governmental organisations from attending future news conferences.

Not a threat

Delegates from both the EU and US attempted to undermine the G21 on Thursday by writing it off as a marriage of convenience.

"It's really unclear to us what is the unifying principle there among those countries," said Deputy US Trade Representative Peter Allgeier.

"On the one hand, you've got some of those countries that were among the most ambitious countries for agricultural reform.

"Then it goes across the spectrum... to countries that have not been advocates of reform," he told reporters.

Another senior US official questioned what Brazil had in common with fellow G21 member India, which shelters behind some of the world's highest tariff walls and is reluctant to open its markets.

The EU, which spends about $100bn on propping up its own farmers, said it was unconcerned by G21 pressure.

"We do not see the G21 as some kind of a threat," said EU spokeswoman Arancha Gonzalez.

"It is a temporary alliance which wants to push the joint interests of its members together."

(Compiled from Reuters, AFP, BBC News Online and Indo-Asian News Service)