Geneva, April 18:

The final ‘window of opportunity’ for a new global free trade deal might just have slammed shut, according to analysts closely watching the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations.

Having already missed countless deadlines in six years, top trading powers have now set themselves a year-end date for completing the Doha round of commerce liberalisation talks aimed at add-ing billions of dollars to the global economy and lifting millions of people worldwide out of poverty.

But for analysts, the most significant result of last week’s meeting of the WTO’s six most powerful members in New Delhi was how little attention was paid to a much more serious deadline only weeks away - the expiration of US president George W Bush’s authority to send trade deals to Congress for a simple yes-or-note vote without amendments.

“Whatever sense of urgency that might have been perceived by negotiators has now been dispensed with,” said Sandra Polaski of the Carn-egie Endowment in Was-hington. “It seems like they just breezed by that June 30 deadline. There is no evidence that there is any political will to get this done.” The Doha round has stumbled sin-ce its inception in Qatar’s capital in 2001, largely because of the wrangling between rich and poor countries over eliminating farm trade barriers. Two high-profile summits - one in Mexico in 2003 and another in Ho-ng Kong in 2005 - failed to deliver a breakthrough.

Another major effort collapsed in July, and Lamy has been trying for months to rally negotiators to end the deadlock.