1. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns had been meeting over two days with their counterparts from the EU, Australia, Brazil and India in a group called the Five Interested Parties, or FIPS, to make progress in the long–stalled WTO negotiations, which formally are called the Doha Development Agenda.

2. "I‘m hopeful that what we began yesterday with a new proposal and with new momentum will result in the next 48 hours in additional and more specific offers on the market access side," Portman said, "so that we have the hope of pulling together an agreement that we can take into Hong Kong at the end of the year." Portman was scheduled to meet later in the day on the agricultural negotiations in a group of key participants called the Five Interested Parties, or FIPS, comprising the United States, the European Union (EU), Brazil, India and Australia. He said he would meet with negotiators from still more countries the following day.