By Missy Ryan KANSAS CITY, Mo., April 15 (Reuters) - The United States will continue to press for less restrictive rules on food aid in world trade talks, despite push-back from the trading partners like the European Union, officials said on Tuesday. "There are still some issues on the table, but I think we're winning," Dale Skoric, a food aid policy adviser at the U.S. Agency for International Development, said about discussions on food aid in the World Trade Organization's Doha round. As Doha negotiators seek to end a stubborn impasse in coming weeks, food aid again takes a backseat to the more visible, contentious issues of the talks, such as import tariffs, farm subsidies, and special breaks for developing countries. But it is an issue with a large constituency in the United States, the world's largest donor of food aid, and the Doha outcome could shape the quantity and kind of food aid going to countries struggling with famine or war. Negotiators now hope to bridge deep divisions over the round's central issues in the next few weeks to gather trade ministers and patch together an agreement before President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009. Mark Manis, a senior trade adviser at the U.S. Agriculture Department, who has been taking part in negotiations is Geneva, said a good number of food aid issues have already been wrapped up in the Doha talks. But disagreement remains on other issues that are a priority for the United states, Manis said at an annual U.S. government food aid conference in Kansas City, Missouri. Washington and Brussels, for example, have taken divergent paths on food aid, and have found themselves at odds in the Doha talks on a number of points. Brussels, which donates mostly cash, rather than crops, and others like Canada had wanted to see the United States follow suit, but had not been unsuccessful, Manis said. He said the same held for efforts to restrict concessional sales and to limit the duration of what can be considered an emergency. "The U.S. prevailed in blocking that," Manis said. One of the most divisive issues that remains revolves around a practice called monetization, common in the United States, in which aid groups receive government crop donations and sell them in poor nations to fund community development projects. Critics see it as wasteful and even counterproductive, but this funding pipeline is defended fiercely by many aid groups who say it helps breaks the cycle of hunger. "There are some very vocal members of the WTO who would like to eliminate it completely, or to limit it," Manis said. The administration will continue to fight, but acknowledged it will be "an uphill battle." Monetization may be the sole food aid issue that ministers themselves debate if they gather for a breakthrough meeting. Crawford Falconer, who leads the agriculture talks, is expected to address at least some of the outstanding food aid issues when he releases a revised negotiating draft in coming weeks to move the discussions ahead. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
A Haitian argues with a U.N. peacekeeper at Haiti's national palace in Port-au-Prince April 14, 2008. At least five people died during a week of violence in which U.N. troops battled ...
