Brussels, 03/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - The battle is continuing between the big agricultural exporting powers and the European Union following the decision by the WTO's 149 Member States on 24 April 2006 to extend the 30 April deadline for meeting agreement on the farm and manufactured goods (NAMA in WTO jargon) aspects of the Doha Round, hopefully by the end of July (see EUROPE 9178). Taking the advantage of the absence of EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson who felt nothing could be gained from attending the meeting in Switzerland, the chief negotiators of other big agricultural powers - the United States, Australia and Brazil - travelled to Geneva on Tuesday for consultation among several countries, upping pressure on the EU with the aim of forcing it to make a new offering granting much greater access to the EU farm market. US Trade Secretary Rob Portman, soon to be replaced by Susan Schwab, said on Tuesday that it would still be possible to conclude the Doha Round by the end of this year as long as the EU agreed to make greater concessions on agriculture. Australia's trade minister, Mark Vaile, said the aim of the Cairns Group net agriculture exporters is to get greater access to markets, in contrast to the EU's conservative position. Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim, chief negotiator for the G20 group of emerging economies, also focussed on the need for the EU to cut its farm customs duties. When asked for his opinion by EUROPE, a spokesperson for Peter Mandelson, Peter Power, was pleased that Celso Amorim had, for the first time, recognised at a press conference on Tuesday that the United States was asking too much of the EU in terms of agriculture compared with what the US itself was prepared to concede.