India's trade minister dismissed on Wednesday a move by the United States to unblock world trade talks but behind closed doors, negotiators were inching forward in their bid to rescue a deal, officials said.

Arriving at crunch World Trade Organisation talks a day after his government won a confidence vote, Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath rejected a long-awaited US offer to limit subsidies to American farmers announced on Tuesday.

 "The offer by the United States ... is wholly inadequate and not commensurate with the current food crisis, not commensurate with what they are wanting," Nath said.

"This is a round where developed countries have to put something on the table, not come and look into the pockets of developing countries."    

Launched in 2001, the 'Doha round' of trade talks aims to open markets for farm and manufactured goods around the world.

Developing nations are supposed to benefit from a scaling back of huge barriers that protect farmers in the United States and Europe, but the biggest emerging economies are being asked in return to open their markets, too.

Progress in the talks has been modest since they began on Monday and they are likely to drag on beyond Saturday's scheduled close, a WTO spokesman said.

Without a breakthrough on farming and manufactured goods by the August summer break, the round risks being put on hold pending November's US presidential elections and could remain frozen for a couple of years.

The United States on Tuesday offered to cap subsidies to $15 billion, lower than the level of seven of the last 10 years and well below the existing $48.2 billion ceiling. But the proposed limit is above the approximately $7 billion paid to U.S. farmers last year, an amount that was relatively small due to high commodity prices.

Nath, a key player at the talks as he represents one of the biggest and fastest growing world economies, said the US proposal was unimpressive. "It's hardly an offer when they are applying $7 billion (in current subsidies). There's no shoe which pinches there," he said. "We need to talk of real cuts."     

Brazil, another major emerging economy, also pushed Washington for deeper subsidy cuts. Developing countries complain that rich country subsidies squeeze their farmers out of the market, reducing local food production and leaving them vulnerable to food price spikes.

Kent Conrad, a Democratic senator from grain-producing North Dakota, expressed concern that subsidies would be capped. He said in a statement that US trade chief Susan Schwab seemed "to be negotiating against herself. She's certainly not negotiating in the interests of hard-working family farmers in North Dakota and elsewhere in the country". - Reuters