The latest bid to conclude talks, launched in 2001 with an express aim of addressing the needs of developing nations, collapsed on Tuesday after the United States clashed with emerging powers like China, India and Indonesia over farming.

"We are disappointed, but we have not given up," said Ivory Coast cotton farmer Seydou Soro, former head of the industry association Intercoton.

"We still hope there will one day be an agreement for the Americans to stop subsidies to their cotton farmers so African cotton can compete on the world market."

Subsidies to U.S. cotton farmers, blamed for flooding world markets and undermining the prices paid to millions of African smallholders and their families, were set to be reined in under the trade deal. But the Geneva talks never got that far.

"Most of the key issues of interest to the African continent were not even discussed, especially the issue of cotton," Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya's trade minister and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) coordinator for Africa, said in Geneva.

"Africa critically needs to realise development and get itself out of poverty through the establishment of fair trade rather than aid. Africa's opportunity to achieve fair trade has therefore been gravely undermined by the lack of progress in these negotiations," he said.

Kenyatta held out hope negotiations could be revived at a later stage to build on progress made on some key issues.

ROUND AND ROUND

The WTO's "Doha Development round" has been heralded by supporters as a unique opportunity to boost global commerce and offer millions of poor farmers and others in developing countries a chance to trade their way out of poverty.

But some development campaigners have complained that rich industrialised countries and a few big emerging economies like China, India and Brazil hold all the bargaining chips.

The future of African banana farms, for example, hinged on talks between the European Union and leading Latin American growers.

They agreed that as part of an overall deal Brussels would reduce import tariffs designed to keep out bananas from places like Ecuador in favour of fruit from former colonies.

That, like the other compromise deals struck in Geneva, is null and void under the WTO's "all or nothing" approach which many blame for the collapse.

"We are happy we will to keep the status quo ... This gives us breathing space," said Emile Nanga, head of a group of small-scale banana farmers in Ivory Coast, one of Africa's top growers. African banana growers had rejected the tariff deal.

But not all were happy with the Geneva deadlock.

"The failure of the Geneva negotiations is obviously not good news for us in the CDC because we depend on WTO mechanisms that provide protection for vulnerable sectors like banana production," said Charles Endeley, spokesman for the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), Cameroon's top banana grower.

Some economists worry the failure to secure a deal to liberalise world trade could leave the door open to increased protectionism at a time many rich and poor countries alike are struggling to cope with surging fuel and food prices.

"One of the key causes of the current food crisis, namely market distortions brought about by the subsidies, will remain to haunt us," said Lesotho's Trade Minister Propane Lebesa.

Lebesa said the Doha Round should be resumed as soon as possible, as it has been after previous collapses.

But whether or not that happens, the uncertainty and imbalances many African farmers have complained about for years look set to continue for the forseeable future.

"Unfortunately, as always happens, it is the poorest of the poor who always carry the biggest burden," said Kenyatta.