However some Chinese experts say that the US itself can never accept that analysis, and takes it for granted that the developing nations, including China, should be held responsible for the Doha failure.

"One thing is clear: What we are doing today in the Doha negotiations is not working. That is not a value statement, but a simple assessment of the facts. After 10 years, we're deadlocked," said Michael Punke, the US ambassador to the WTO.

The US believes that the major emerging economies should make more generous offers (regarding concessions) to reflect their tremendous export growth over the past decade, Punke said, without referring to China, India and Brazil by name.

Punke also told the US Senate Finance Committee that "the Obama administration believes that China and other emerging economies must shoulder new responsibilities. So far, they have been unwilling to do so."

China's role

"As a key member of the developing nations' club, China has been actively involved in and pushing the Doha talks. No one can deny or distort what China has contributed during the past decade," said Shen Danyang, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce, in response to critical comments from some developed economies.

China would make a 100 percent effort as long as there is as much as a 1 percent chance of advancing the talks ... but the major point is that we must not blame, but cooperate with, each other, he said.

As part of the Doha negotiations, China has promised no subsidies for agricultural exports and no duties on 95 percent of imports from the least-developed countries. China has also sharply reduced tariff duties on non-agricultural products since its 2001 entry into the WTO. The figure has fallen to 8.9 percent on average and the rate could probably fall to 6 percent if there were a successful conclusion to the Doha negotiations, said Chen Deming, China's minister of commerce.

A few nations are taking a "narrow-minded" approach to the negotiations, which is making Doha progress slowly and with difficulty, said Gu Yongjiang, China's former vice-minister of commerce.

If the larger nations had been as bold and generous as China in making compromises, the talks would have been concluded many years ago, he said.

Western countries annually spend $360 billion on protecting their agricultural sectors through a network of subsidies and tariffs, resulting in a potential loss of around $50 billion in agricultural exports for the developing countries, said Mark Malloch Brown, the former head of the United Nations' Development Program.

Agricultural subsidies cause an "extraordinary distortion of global trade", according to Malloch Brown.

A critical time

Developed regions are considering discarding the Doha talks and resorting to other alternatives.

Karel De Gucht, the EU commissioner for trade, proposed the drafting of another plan in preparation for the possible failure of the talks, as he believed there was no reason to be optimistic about Doha.

One way to improve the chances of a deal would be to move away from the current approach. The US would favor an approach allowing more ambitious countries to set the pace, according to Punke.

However, most WTO member nations don't agree.

China will continue to make efforts to revive and push forward the Doha negotiations, although the window for success is gradually closing, said Chen Deming.

Chinese experts have called for the talks to be wrapped up as soon as possible, in a bid to invigorate the world economy and to fend off global trade protectionism.

An acceleration of the negotiations would help the world economy gain confidence and combat trade protectionism, said Ren Jianxin, vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the top advisory body in the country.

In September, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund warned that the global economy is entering a new and dangerous period and both poor and rich nations should join with each other to battle through the bad times.

Meanwhile, as there seems little chance of a resolution to Doha, many nations are increasing their efforts to establish free-trade agreements (FTA). However, this poses a threat to the multilateral trade rules under the WTO umbrella, and runs contrary to the WTO rules, said experts.

As an example, an FTA between India and the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) trading bloc became effective this year. Meanwhile, China and Colombia are expected to start FTA negotiations shortly, and the EU and Georgia are expected to launch talks on a deep and comprehensive FTA "very soon".

However, these new relationships are probably the last thing that Lamy would like to see.

It is time for the WTO's member countries to think seriously about how they can advance global trade openings and make progress in updating the existing trading rules, said Lamy, who admitted that the negotiations are still "deadlocked".

Li Sicong contributed to this story.