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CANCUN, Mexico, Thursday (Reuters) India piled pressure on the United States and European Union for concessions over farm trade at global commerce talks insisting all types of subsidy must be cut.

India has lined up with 20 other developing nations to try to force concessions over farm trade from rich countries at troubled World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations. "We do not want European farmers to go out of business. We want to save our own farmers," Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley told Reuters as the WTO meeting got under way. The talks could determine if the Doha Round of trade liberalization negotiations is completed on time by the end of 2004.

"If the differences or gaps (over agriculture) are to be bridged it certainly will require that developed and richer nations whose subsidies of all kinds have distorted the global agricultural market take a few extra steps," Jaitley said.

He said even so-called 'green box' farm subsidies, which the EU and United States say do not distort trade, needed at least to be tightly disciplined. Some payments should also possibly be eliminated as they helped farmers in the West stay in business and keep dumping food on world markets.

"The onus lies on developed countries to create a level playing field," said Jaitley, a wealthy corporate lawyer and keen cricket fan who is sometimes mentioned as a future prime minister.

India is a powerful voice at the WTO. When the present talks were launched in the Qatari capital Doha in 2001, it resisted the proposed agenda to the end.

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