India and the European Union have hardened their stand just a week ahead of the WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun.

While Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee lambasted the rich countries for ignoring the development dimension of the Doha trade agenda and not recognising New Delhi's concerns on agriculture and the Singapore issues, EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy attacked the joint agriculture framework of 20 developing countries, including India and Brazil, stating that the two had different priorities.

In his inaugural address at the India-Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) business summit this morning, Vajpayee said, "We try to highlight the asymmetries and imbalances in multilateral trade agreements, but keep getting side-tracked into non-trade issues."

Vajpayee blamed World Trade Organisation members for adopting a two-track negotiating process, with the concerns of developing countries "always on the slower track."

He asked Asean members to join hands with India in arresting this trend.

Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley later defended India's high tariffs on agriculture by relating it to the high subsidies extended by developed countries like the US and the EU.

"Distortions have been brought about by domestic support and export subsidies by developed countries.... Our protection is on account of these subsidies," he told reporters.

Talking to reporters via a video conference from Brussels, Lamy argued that India's high tariff walls and opposition to duty reduction were hurting market access for developing and least developed countries.

Vajpayee said India and the Asean shared concerns on the Singapore issues and on non-agricultural market access. On Singapore issues, Lamy said India was unnecessarily raising sovereignty concerns.