World Trade Organisation negotiators on Friday made a last-ditch effort to salvage the deal on easier availability of life- saving medicines to poor countries, which fell through earlier in the day.

The accord would have allowed poor countries to issue compulsory licences to import cheap generic versions of patented drugs in case of a public health crisis.

A deal had appeared within their grasp until unexpected differences emerged on its interpretation. Over 20 countries, including Argentina, Venezuela and the Philippines, said the draft accord was unacceptable.

The WTO spokesperson has accepted that the discussions are stalled and it is now unlikely that an accord will be reached before the Cancun ministerial begins.

Brazil and India are major producers of generic drugs, which are cheaper copies of patented medicines, while Kenya and South Africa represented countries most affected by AIDS and malaria.

Existing world trade rules allow countries -- developed or developing -- with their own domestic drugs industry to waive patents and issue compulsory licences to generics manufacturers when they face health emergencies.

Compulsory licence logjam

Poor nations allege Proposed process too cumbersome Making generics different from patented drug raises medicine cost Developed countries reply It promotes transparency, avoids controversy Companies like Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline already have a dual product policy

But the regulations say nothing about states without their own drug industry and WTO members have been battling for nearly two years to agree on a solution.

To break the logjam, India said it was willing to negotiate further on the contentious issue if poor countries were unhappy with the deal struck with the United States.

"We will go with what the African nations want on the issue of Trips and public health. We will support them on this. For us it is not a commercial issue but a humanitarian one," SN Menon, additional secretary in the commerce ministry, said at a seminar organised by Ficci and Icrier here today.

He said India wanted to ensure that poor nations without manufacturing facilities had access to cheap medicines by resorting to compulsory licensing in case of epidemics.

Trade experts said India, Brazil, South Africa and Kenya, which thrashed the deal with the Untied States, had been pushed into a corner with some developing countries taking them as an ally of Washington.

"It appears that the US would now try to shift the blame on India and the other countries if the deal does not come through," added an Indian official.

Commerce ministry officials said that India had advised the WTO to circulate the draft text to its members before unveiling it in the General Council.

Officials said the draft was shown only to the four countries that negotiated the deal with the US, despite requests to make it available to other WTO members.

At the General Council, some countries said that they could not agree to the deal without a mandate from their respective governments.