PENPIX: Top negotiators in the WTO's failed Doha round push

(Reuters) - Following are brief descriptions of the top negotiators who failed after more than a week of strained talks this week to agree on the basis for a long-sought World Trade Organization treaty.

PASCAL LAMY, WTO DIRECTOR-GENERAL

The Frenchman and former European Union trade commissioner became head of the WTO in September 2005, nine months after the Doha round was originally meant to have concluded.

Known for his endurance as a marathon runner, Lamy stretched negotiations well into the night almost from the start of the talks, exhausting ministers and the officials supporting them.

Lamy was personally involved in sensitive talks over the European Union's banana tariffs, which were spun off into a separate accord between the bloc and Latin American producers announced on the sidelines of the Geneva talks.

He told WTO staff in an e-mail before the grueling talks they should eat bananas and bread to keep their energy up.

One reason he was seen to be pushing so hard was to redeem his professional reputation, not wanting to be the first director-general in the WTO's history to oversee the collapse of a round of global trade talks.

SUSAN SCHWAB, U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE

Since becoming the United States' top trade negotiator in June 2006, Schwab has worked aggressively to conclude bilateral free trade deals with Peru, Colombia, Panama, and South Korea, some of which have proved unpopular in the U.S. Congress.

Her record on the Doha round has also been mixed. A Geneva ministerial meeting she attended in her second month on the job collapsed in failure over rich-poor splits, and an attempt to revive the talks in Germany last year similarly fizzled out.

She made the first major move in the Doha rescue talks this week, offering to cut trade-distorting U.S. farm subsidies to $15 billion a year, but major developing countries rejected that offer given current U.S. subsidies are half that level.

Schwab's staff were also quick to point out that India and later China were digging in their heels in the talks, setting up the "blame game" that later unfolded with the world's leading economies attributing the talks' collapse on each other.

PETER MANDELSON, EUROPEAN UNION TRADE COMMISSIONER

Known as a smooth political operator, Mandelson struggled in Geneva to keep the EU's 27 member states in check as he discussed potential farm subsidy cuts.

Italy, France, Poland, Hungary, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Lithuania and Cyprus all pressed for better terms in the talks, challenging their chief who said that compromises espoused by Lamy represented a basis for moving toward a deal.

That pressure followed a personal attack on Mandelson from French President Nicolas Sarkozy who earlier this month blamed the former British Labour politician for creating political problems for Europe with his stances in the WTO talks.

"My shoulders are broad enough and my skin thick enough to take this," was his cool response.

Mandelson was the only one of the major parties to the WTO talks to publish a daily blog in Geneva, where he described major issues being discussed as well as lighter references to the meals he was eating and the amount of sleep he could catch.

CELSO AMORIM, BRAZILIAN FOREIGN MINISTER

The soft-spoken career diplomat created a stir before the Geneva talks even began by likening the arguments of rich-nation trade negotiators to Nazi propaganda.

Amorim, in his second term as Brazil's minister of foreign affairs, quickly apologized for referring to the quote of Josef Goebbels that a lie repeated often enough will be accepted as truth, and kept a relatively low profile during the talks.

Unlike India and Brazil's regional ally Argentina, Brazil was warm to a compromise proposal floated by Lamy on Friday that initially led to a sense the WTO talks could get to an accord.

That split was potentially significant for Brazil, which often speaks on behalf of developing countries in international trade talks. It also reflected the varied interests of emerging nations at the WTO where some, like Chile and Malaysia, want better treatment for their exports while others such as India and Indonesia want to shield themselves against competition.

KAMAL NATH, INDIAN COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY MINISTER

India's fiery trade chief took centre stage in the Geneva talks, where he took a hard line against the U.S. farm subsidy offer and insisted on aggressive means for developing countries to protect their farmers against import surges or price swings.

This in spite of having to fly home for a key confidence vote in the Indian parliament, which his government won.

Nath, who frequently says he speaks on behalf of subsistence farmers, resisted from the start compromises presented by Lamy on how to open up farm and industrial markets, and at several points threatened to walk out of the talks, according to officials involved in the closed-door sessions.