Brussels, 23/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - Speaking at a business summit on the fringes of the EU-Brazil summit in Rio de Janeiro on 22 December 2008, the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, urged President-elect Barack Obama of the United States to take action when he comes to office on 20 January 2009 to get the Doha trade round rolling again. The fate of the global talks now depends on the United States making a move on three issues: the special safeguard mechanism for developing countries in farm products, the special safeguards for cotton, and sectoral deals in access to the industrial market (NAMA). Sarkozy said he thought that at some point next year, when the new US Administration gets down to business, President Obama will have to take action, people will have to meet up again and old habits will have to be shaken up in order to achieve a balanced trade deal. Sarkozy also called again for a summit at the highest political level to encourage a global trade deal after seven years of talks. I think the method that has been used is not the right one, he aid, adding that if at some point, heads of state did not get down to finding agreement, finding ways of moving closer, then a deal would not be reached. Despite the appeals made at the G20 summit on the financial crisis in November in Washington, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy gave up on the idea in December of convening a talk at ministerial level before the end of the year to try to reach overall agreement on the 'modalities' of free trade in agriculture and manufacturing products because of the lack of agreement among WTO member nations. (E.H. trans fl)