The World Trade Organization's long-running Doha round is stuck and a deal is impossible until China and other big emerging economies join real negotiations to open their markets, a top U.S. trade official said.

The unusually outspoken comments were a sign of Washington's frustration at the reluctance of China, Brazil and India -- among the most dynamic players in the world economy -- to create more market opportunities to reach a deal in the Doha talks.

Michael Punke, U.S. ambassador to the WTO, said China was stalling on talks on the global trade round sought by the United States, but there were hopeful signs that Brazil and India were willing to negotiate.

"When it comes to China however we're getting no engagement whatsoever, not even in terms of process," he told Reuters.

"We find it very hard to see how it is we're going to be able to move forward with Doha negotiations if China is not even in a position right now to consult with its domestic industry."

Punke dismissed arguments by the big emerging giants that they should not be asked to do more in the Doha talks, launched in late 2001, because the liberalisation round was intended primarily to help developing countries trade more.

It was wrong to consider dynamos like China, Brazil and India, despite their millions of poor people, in the same light as the poorest countries, he said. They would continue to be among the main beneficiaries of the global trading system after a Doha deal.

Barrier

"Where are the barriers to developing country trade? The most significant ones are in the emerging developing countries," he said, adding that 70 percent of tariffs collected by the emerging economies were paid by developing countries.

Punke also rejected warnings from other WTO members that U.S. demands could cause the current carefully balanced proposals to unravel.

"We don't have a deal right now. There is no deal, there is no agreement," Punke said, saying that current proposals on the table, based on the state of negotiations in July 2008 when an attempt by ministers to reach a deal collapsed, represented valuable work but were not the end of the story.

Punke said that in the last few months WTO members had held real talks in a number of groups, such as environmental goods, trade in services led by Australia, and opening up individual industrial sectors led by Japan.

"We've had a useful and constructive process that we've begun with India and Brazil. There's a process there that gives me some hope that over time we can reach a good conclusion," he said of the United States' bilateral negotiations. (Reuters)