US and European Union negotiators are inching towards a deal that could restart stalled world trade talks but any agreement is contingent to reciprocal concessions by India and Brazil on lowering barriers to trade in industrial goods and services -- which are still under negotiation, a leading financial daily reported on Monday.

Brazil has been negotiating separately with the US and EU and dispatched a senior diplomat to Delhi over the weekend to try to broker a common position ahead of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

The progress follows a meeting of high-level officials that finished at the weekend and constant cabinet-level contact between Washington and Brussels in the run up to the Davos meeting this week, The Financial Times reported quoting officials.

A US trade official said the Swiss forum would allow for important meetings to take place but would not produce any public statement on a 'breakthrough'.

But there was sufficient expectation that fresh political impetus would emerge from the forum that the G-20 group of developing nations was mobilising to hold multilateral talks next week in Geneva, the report said.

The proposed outline of an agreement between the world's two largest trading blocs includes politically explosive concessions that are already causing rifts in Europe and alarm in the US farm lobby, the report said.

The fragile deal that is starting to emerge has yet to be finalised and comes amid tremendous uncertainty about whether negotiators can get the political backing to achieve a breakthrough in the Doha round of trade talks.