WTO Director General Pascal Lamy was to address the 150-strong Trade Negotiations Committee in Geneva later on Friday in a bid to assuage concern that the failure of talks in Potsdam could point to the end of the road for the global trading round.

The talks between the so-called "G4" -- the European Union, the United States, Brazil and India -- broke down on Thursday. All parties now agree that the focus will move back to multilateral discussions in Geneva.

Brazil's top trade official and foreign minister, Celso Amorim, told reporters that the G4 was "dead," but the same should not be said for the wider Doha Round.

"I don't think that the Doha Round is dead, even that it is agonising," Amorim said.

It is "difficult but not impossible" for all 150 members of the WTO to arrive at a comprehensive global trade deal, he added.

An EU official who declined to be named was not as forthright as Amorim on the state of the G4, but did say that the group in its current format "seems to have exhausted itself".

The official said the G4 had "performed a vital function," but that people would have to "draw some conclusions" in the wake of the Potsdam failure.