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Top trade negotiators for the United States and the European Union vowed here Wednesday to step up their efforts to agree on lowering barriers for agricultural products, breaking the stalemate at World Trade Organization talks.

But US Trade Representative Rob Portman and EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said at a joint news conference that their two-day discussions had produced no breakthroughs.

Both officials said that their discussions were based on a proposal made by the Group of 20 developing nations in Dalian, China, in July.

The proposal on farm trade would divide countries into five groupings. Each group would have a different target for reducing tariffs they impose on farm imports.

To achieve a deal to cut farm trade barriers is seen as critical to the overall success of the current "Doha Round" of global trade negotiations, which is being conducted by the WTO among 148 nations.

Portman said he and Mandelson had agreed on a time frame of "intensive consultations" in the run-up to a crucial meeting of trade ministers of the WTO members in Hong Kong on December 13-18.

As two great trading partners and important players in the global economy, the United States and EU have been calling on each other to move first on farm subsidies, market access and industrial tariffs among other thorny WTO issues.

The two have agreed to get rid of agricultural export subsidies for their farmers, but gave no details about when or how.