Another bid to galvanise momentum fizzled on Thursday when negotiations among four key powers -- the United States, the European Union, Brazil and India -- failed to yield common ground on the global trade talks.

"We sit here today with considerable bad news over the latest discussions on the Doha Round and I think that certainly I would appeal to members of Asean to have become more involved -- for their voices to be heard, and clearly, with regard to the Doha Round," E. Neville Isdell, chairman and chief executive of the Coca-Cola Company, told reporters at the World Economic Forum on East Asia.

He was referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The Doha round of global trade talks is currently stalled due mainly to differences over agricultural subsidies and trade tariffs among the key trading powers.

Sources said in Geneva on Friday that the 150-member World Trade Organisation (WTO) had three weeks to get multilateral talks back on track in the wake of the failed four-power talks.

"We must be contributing to and encouraging the process ..." Mari Pangestu, Indonesia's Minister of Trade, told the two-day forum attended by about 300 delegates.

"I think East Asia should and must play a continued leadership role in ensuring global and regional integration, and that's a dual role."

The multilateral talks, dubbed the Doha Development Round, were launched in the Qatari capital, Doha, in 2001 with the intention of ensuring that poor countries enjoy the fruits of freer global trade.

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, whose nation currently holds the Asean chair, said the regional bloc "are not the culprits" in failed efforts to reach a global trade deal.

The region would push for integration with or without a Doha agreement, Arroyo said.