Brussels, 26/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - At least one week from the buffer date for finding an agreement at the WTO on the arrangements for liberalising farm trade, France admits that the timetable cannot be upheld (see EUROPE of 25 march, p.11). "Member countries' positions are too different and American policy, which cultivates paradoxes, is unreadable. As for the Cairns Group, it is obstinately sticking to the road of ultra-liberalism which can under no circumstances serve as a model for the whole world" circles close to the French Minister for Agriculture, Hervé Gaymard, say. Mr Gaymard had received the NGOs and professional agricultural organisations on Tuesday in order to discuss the issue. Discussions resumed on Tuesday in Geneva to resolve the disputes as "if officials can take the place of politicians, while it is expected of politicians in Cancun, in September, that they resolve the technical problems", this source explains, recalling that "the EU has placed all its cards on the table and has made a very generous proposal". The United States and the Cairns Group must agree to discuss all forms of subsidies (deflected food aid, export credits), and France hopes to convince the EU and t he members of the WTO that it has become indispensable to "turn one's back on past schemes" in which the WTO was "nothing more than a body for compensating interests of trade powers". "Negotiation must answer the aspirations of the poorest by granting them more trade concessions than to the others", it is stressed on the French side.