Senior trade officials from the United States, the European Union, Brazil and India met Wednesday in New Delhi, India, to break the deadlock over global trade talks.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told reporters that the "differences are slowly narrowing."
The "Doha Round" of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks is stalled over demands for rich nations to cut agricultural subsidies that make it difficult for farm products from poor nations to compete. Rich nations want poor nations to boost access to their markets for goods from developed nations.
The talks include some of the largest developed nations and some of the largest developing countries. Getting an agreement among these trading powers is a key step toward crafting an agreement acceptable to the rest of the WTO's 150 members.
On Thursday, officials will meet for the first talks between all four key members of the World Trade Organization since negotiations broke down last July over differences on farm subsidies.