Mumbai: India is ready to return to world trade negotiations but will not compromise on protection to farmers in an uneven market, commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said.

He said the failure of the talks was a ''serious setback to the developing countries," and blamed the United States for the collapse of the Geneva ministerial, early this week.

The US created a deadlock on the safeguard mechanism, an issue which was not trade but related to livelihood of farmers, Nath said, adding, ''I can negotiate commerce but I cannot negotiate livelihood security".

''I told the WTO director general that India is ready to be on the table without compromising on issues which concern poor farmers of not only India but 100 other developing countries," Kamal Nath.

Nath, who had spoken to prime minister Manmohan Singh a couple of times from Geneva, said he was not aware of what US president George Bush spoke to Manmohan Singh on the issue.

''Before leaving for the talks, I had a mandate which did not change," he said.

The nine-day Geneva talks broke down on 29 July when the US rejected proposals from India and China that they should be allowed to impose extra 25 per cent tariff in agricultural imports rise above 15 per cent.

The US wanted a higher level of 40 per cent to trigger duty impost, which Nath said, was unacceptable. "By the time we have 40 per cent surge in imports our farmers would have committed suicide," Nath said.

Indian industry supported the government's stand at Geneva negotiations, stating agriculture goes beyond trade for India and the livelihood of farmers cannot be compromised.

''Even a 10 per cent import surge proposal from India and other developing countries was very liberal," R Gopalakrishna, chairman of CII's WTO and trade agreements committee, said.

Business chambers, some of which had sent their officials to Geneva, said despite the setbacks, a multilateral agreement should be the preferred route for opening up trade.

The collapse of the world trade negotiations, however, has given rise to pessimism among most countries. They feel the revival, of talks as unlikely in the foreseeable future.

A number of countries are expected to gear up for entering into bilateral or regional free trade agreements to expand their overseas markets.

The Geneva trade talks collapsed on Tuesday as the United States and emerging economies, mainly China and India, clashed over the issue of agriculture.

The Doha Round of world trade negotiations, launched in the Qatari capital in November 2001, had missed several deadlines, due mainly to a rift between developed and developing economies over agriculture and industrial sectors.

This, in turn, has given rise to the expansion of bilateral and regional free trade agreements. Major trading countries like China,  India, South Korea, Japan and Australia are all discussing regional free trade in Asia beyond the ASEAN and the SAARC.

Japan signed FTAs with eight countries and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and is also in talks with several other economies over FTAs, including Australia, India, the Gulf Cooperation Council members and Switzerland.