OTTAWA — Canada's efforts to convince other rich nations to ease off on agricultural subsidies proved fruitless as World Trade Organization talks designed to broaden international trade reached an impasse.

Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl said he was disappointed that the issue didn't get off the ground in Geneva.

"There were no negotiations at all, that's the sad part, the sad truth,'' Strahl said Saturday in a teleconference call from the Swiss city.

Trade Minister David Emerson also expressed his dismay.

"While WTO members have worked hard to reach an agreement, the gaps among members' negotiating positions proved to be too great to bridge during this meeting,'' Emerson said in a statement.

"Open economies like Canada's have much to gain from the multilateral trading system, and we will continue to work closely with other WTO members to resolve differences in these negotiations.''

The WTO talks, aimed at increasing worldwide trade while addressing poverty, have been going on since 2001.

Countries are facing a deadline of the end of this year to reach a deal on trade liberalization, and there are fears that failure to do so could put the discussion on the backburner for years.

The main issues are the lowering of subsidies rich countries provide to their agricultural sectors, as well as the lowering of tariffs that developing countries place on imports.

European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson warned that the clock on reaching a deal was at "five minutes to midnight,'' as an exasperated Kamal Nath, India's trade minister, left early and almost all other key negotiating countries blamed one another for the lack of progress.

"This has not been a successful meeting but nor has it been a disaster,'' said Mandelson.

"If, however, we do not turn things around in the next two weeks we will not make a breakthrough this summer and then we will be facing defeat.''

Nath was more forthright. "There's no need to pretend that this has not been a failure,'' he said before departing early, skipping an afternoon session.

Canada, along with the European Union, arrived at the meetings expressing a willingness to support a general lowering of agricultural subsidies.

Specifically, Canada had proposed a 70-per-cent reduction in domestic support for agricultural commodities.

"We had a frame of reference hoping that would start the discussions, but nobody would bite, nobody would move forward and agree to start negotiating,'' Strahl said.

WTO director general Pascal Lamy will now shuttle between the principal countries in the negotiations in search of common ground to kickstart talks.

Emerson was also trying to ink a final agreement with the U.S. on softwood lumber.

Strahl said his colleague was still working on it Saturday.

"I know he's in the middle of it, I know there's been some difficult negotiations in trying to get that legal text advanced,'' Strahl said.