"We haven't said definitively that we're not going" to the meeting, Mandelson's spokesman, Peter Power, told reporters in Brussels.

"Our position is that it is extremely difficult from a diary point of view, and we just wonder about the value of meetings in the absence of any clear indication from certain parties to these talks that they're prepared to move on the position they had in Geneva," he said, in a clear allusion to Washington.

"If we get such an indication, then clearly that changes the scenario and people will travel. But in the absence of that, there's not much value," Power said.

Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile will host meeting of major world trading powers on September 20-22 in a bid to salvage talks on a global free trade deal, which collapsed in Geneva at the end of last month.

In an effort to revive the so-called Doha round of negotiations, Vaile has extended a meeting of the 18-member Cairns Group to include senior US trade officials, World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy and Mandelson.

On Thursday, the Australian minister said that the negotiations were "hanging by a thread" because of a deadlock over agricultural subsidies, and singled out the EU for criticism.

An EU official said that Mandelson is scheduled to take part in a strategic seminar in late September with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.