The revised draft framework, which includes key provisions on the multi-billion dollar trade in agriculture, was handed over to the WTO's 147 member states after days of negotiations and overnight bartering at the organisation's headquarters in Geneva.

The ongoing negotiations on the new compromise formula, which sets out the way ahead with the deadlocked Doha round of trade talks, were set to extend into Saturday, diplomats said.

"On the whole the reactions are moderate. More work will be done and we will have to work into the night," the EU's trade ambassador in Geneva, Carlo Trojan said after a first meeting of the WTO's members on the revised proposal.

But he warned that the new text "seriously needs further work".

Failure to approve the framework this weekend will likely wreck immediate chances of reviving the stalled Doha round of trade negotiations, with US presidential elections and a shake-up at the European Commission due later this year.

WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi appealed for the "constructive engagement" of members to overcome deadlock.

"It is clearly a well balanced text improving on the areas of concerns for everyone," Supachai told reporters as he prepared to discuss the content with delegations.

Initial reactions to the text from some wealthy and developing countries, which have been at loggerheads since the collapse of a ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, last September, ranged from cautious to negative.

Members of the G20 group of developing countries, including Brazil and India appeared frustrated as they met at WTO headquarters.

"Currently, as the text stands at the moment, I won't sign," Argentina's Foreign Trade Minister Martin Redrado said as he went into the meeting

A US official said Washington "can work with" the section on agriculture but was "disappointed" with parts of it.

"We are concerned about how much we can get for market access with this text," he said.

Zambia's trade ambassador, Love Mtesa, said the document still needed fine tuning and "political will", but he believed that a consensus could be struck early.

Senior offocials from the 25 European Union countries said the text was more balanced as they also gathered for a formal council of ministers meeting in Geneva to discuss the new proposal.

"One piece of good news is that the text is out that means the process is moving forward," said a spokesman for the EU's agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler.

But a delegate from Kenya hinted at problems to come on non-agricultural market access (NAMA), or cuts in tariffs for products ranging from toys to microchips which developing countries have resisted.

The overall text "is a good basis to move on although there are a lot of things that have not been taken into account for example NAMA," the delegate told AFP.

The revised compromise setting out in which areas the 147 countries will try to bring down trade barriers, reinforced provisions to open up global export competition for farm products, according to a copy of the new text.

It maintained the thrust of eliminating export subsidies, which would affect principally wealthy European countries, Japan, and South Korea.

But it reinforced language on reducing the scope of export credits, which are paid by the United States to its farmers, without calling for their outright elimination.

The new text also advocates sharpened limits on domestic support for farmers, and offered more flexibility for classifying "sensitive products" which could be protected from free trade.

On market access for non-agricultural goods, a key demand by industrialised countries, the text remained largely unchanged, but a paragraph was added emphasising that its provisions still required additional negotiations.

Greater access to developing countries' industrial markets has been a key demand of wealthy countries such as the US and EU in return for reducing support for farmers, which poor countries blame for pricing them out of world markets.