European advocates of trapping and storing carbon dioxide as a means of curbing power-plant emissions received a boost on Monday when an experts

International agreements on climate change, food security and energy use could drift beyond reach if next week's Geneva talks on liberalising world trade collapse, Peter Mandelson, the European Union's chief trade negotiator, warned on Thursday.

"The chances for a breakthrough are improving, but that breakthrough is not yet in the bag,' said Mr Mandelson.

A Doha deal was important, he said, because "the global economy faces a barrage of problems... It would bring fresh confidence to a world economy that is certainly in need of it'.

Disunity and recrimination marked the start of France's European Union presidency on Tuesday as Nicolas Sarkozy exchanged accusations with the European Commission over world trade talks. The French president denounced Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner, in a television interview on Monday evening for allegedly selling out EU farmers

European Union finance ministers struggled yesterday to forge a response to food and fuel price inflation, proposing remedies from windfall taxes on oil companies to the suspension of various food import tariffs. Several ministers, notably Wilhelm Molterer of Austria, denounced what they termed "speculation" on commodities futures markets, saying it partly accounted for recent increases in food and oil prices. But the attack attracted little support and was omitted from a letter to EU heads of state and government, who will discuss food price inflation at a Brussels summit on June 19.