GENEVA (AFP) - High-stakes brinkmanship took hold on day three of crucial WTO trade talks on Wednesday amid warnings about the consequences of failure and pleas for progress from key figures.

Advanced and developing countries have slipped into a familiar pattern of demanding concessions from each other, with the success of this week's talks hinging on whether they can make compromises to narrow their differences.

The head of the World Trade Organisation, Pascal Lamy, conceded here Wednesday that progress had been modest so far, while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown reminded everyone that the talks were at "the 11th hour."

Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, a leading emerging country representative, offered observers some cause for optimism by praising US attempts to break the deadlock, but he was quick to add that more was required.

"The first thing we must appreciate is that the US is moving," he said.

"Up to now there was no movement. The fact movement has started is a good sign."

The European Union and the US have both made opening gambits with offers to reduce trade-distorting assistance to their farmers and are now calling for steps by developing nations to open their markets for industrial products.

Nath did not indicate if he would give ground on industrial products, but said that he would make a "good offer on services" -- the final component of the talks.

The WTO has convened a meeting of about 30 leading trade negotiators this week with the aim of mapping out a deal to conclude the long-delayed Doha round of global trade talks.

The Doha round began seven years ago with the aim of helping poor countries, but it has been delayed by disputes between developed and developing nations over subsidies and tariffs for farm and industrial products.

The brinkmanship and tit-for-tat demands for new offers between advanced and developing countries fit a pattern that has seen several previous meetings since 2001 collapse without a deal.

"Progress has been modest until now," Lamy conceded in comments to the organisation's 153 members, his spokesman Keith Rockwell said Wednesday.

But Rockwell suggested there had been an "intensification" of talks during and since a ministerial meeting late on Tuesday.

In London, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned that the talks were at "the 11th hour" and "a critical moment."

"If we do not succeed in the next few days, then it is very difficult to imagine people returning quickly to the negotiating table to secure the outcome that is needed," he said.

The United States on Tuesday offered to cut its official aid ceiling for its farmers to 15 billion dollars a year, two billion dollars more than a previous offer, in a bid to spur movement at the WTO talks.

The US overture came after an attempt by EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson to jolt the talks into movement on Monday with an announcement that the European Union was now ready to extend tariff cuts on agricultural products to 60 percent from 54 percent.

Nath, who arrived late because of a confidence vote against the government in the Indian parliament on Tuesday, had initially called the US offer "wholly inadequate" before praising the step later Wednesday.

The EU offer has been widely dismissed. Brazil described it as "propaganda" and even the EU farm commissioner Mariann Fischer-Boel conceded there was nothing new.

Indonesia's trade minister sounded a rare note of optimism, saying she had seen "coded signals" indicating that the key players were ready to make new offers to reach a final deal.

"I have to be cautiously optimistic (about progress). There were coded signals -- some evidence was there yesterday, even though they were not putting explicit offers on the table," said Mari Elka Pangestu of a ministerial meeting Tuesday night.

Pangestu, who speaks for the G33 group of developing countries, added that it was "not just the US or Europe" but "it's what we call the major countries."

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