Brussels, 16/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - Speaking in Lima, where the 5th EU-Latin America and Caribbean Summit is being held, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that for there to be any chance of success in the Doha negotiations, all sides would have to give up on their most radical demands. “We don't want confrontation between North and South, we all have to give up our most extreme demands” to be able to conclude an agreement liberalising world trade, she said on the sidelines of the Summit which opened on Friday 16 May. “We all have to do our duty,” she reiterated. Also in Lima, Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, calling for the “window of opportunity” before the US Presidential elections not to be missed, once again urged South American countries to make their contribution to the negotiations in order to be able to conclude the Round by the end of the year. With the presentation of new revised compromise texts on modalities for liberalising trade in agriculture and manufactured products (NAMA) imminent in Geneva, Mandelson underlined the need for Europe and the developing countries, including the Latin American countries, to be “on the same page”. The new text on agriculture is likely to be brought forward at WTO headquarters very shortly, most likely at the start of next week. This will not, however, be the final version, warned the chairman of the WTO agriculture negotiations committee Crawford Falconer, after long and difficult discussions on the last two thorny agriculture issues, sensitive products and tropical products, at the end of last week. Negotiators will then have a week to study the text and will meet again on 23 or 26 May. The agriculture chapter will then be discussed at the same time as the text on NAMA as part of the horizontal procedure at high-ranking civil servant level, then at a ministerial meeting, which will not be held before the end of June. (E.H.)