Brussels  - The European Commission late Tuesday expressed "profound disappointment" over the collapse of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Geneva on agriculture markets and called for renewed efforts to break the years-long stalemate.

Jose Manuel Barroso, commission president, said that the European Union had worked "for a fair and balanced deal that would have created a win-win situation."

"We did absolutely everything we could to reconcile the different views and find compromise," Barroso said in a statement.

After nine days of negotiations, the Doha round of talks broke off with the United States on one side and India and China on the other at loggerheads over the opening of agriculture markets.

Delegation members said the talks could be renewed in the autumn. Some 40 ministers were unable tie up the compromise package aimed at liberalising global trade.

The row escalated when India and China refused in particular to further open their agriculture markets, not wanting to entirely weaken the applicable mechanisms protecting their farmers. A large portion of poorer developing countries supported the Indian-Chinese position.

The talks launched seven years ago in Doha were seen as crucial to future world trade - aimed as they are at remedying inequality so that the developing world could benefit more from freer trade.

Barroso said he would recommend that EU member states assess the outcome and "prepare for re-engagement with our major partners."

The Doha Round, named after the Qatari capital where it began in November 2001, has been deadlocked for years. The impasse can be broken only by unanimous agreement between all 153 member countries. (dpa)