Ministers will resume crucial trade talks on Tuesday after a first day slammed as "totally useless" by Brazil, but diplomats said the absence of a key Indian minister continues to fuel uncertainties.

Ministers from around 35 key nations are meeting in Geneva this week on a round of negotiations aimed at breaking the deadlock to achieving a global trade deal.

However, Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath is notably absent as he is in New Delhi as a crucial vote of no-confidence in the coalition of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was set to take place Tuesday.

The vote was triggered by a controversial nuclear deal with Washington.

Diplomats in Geneva said that until that vote is over, little progress could be made on the agricultural front given that India is an important player.

"Basically Monday, Tuesday and possibly Wednesday would be more or less a waste of time since Nath isn't here. If the Indian government were to lose the vote on Tuesday, any deal that is made by the Indian delegation would also hold no water. That's the talk in the corridors," said one diplomat who declined to be named.

Nath was not expected to arrive in Geneva until Wednesday, an Indian official said.

Experts in India have said that the vote was too close to call, adding to the uncertainty in Geneva's trade talks.

After all, India is a key party in the negotiations as it speaks for developing nations whose economies are dominating by smallhold farmers.

Nath had famously said that New Delhi would not sacrifice the interests of its millions of subsistence farmers to clinch a global trade deal.

In a meeting last year of the "G4" group of India, Brazil, the EU and US in Potsdam, Germany, the early departure of the two developing countries from talks resulted in a meltdown of the session.

Absence of new ideas

At the end of Monday's talks, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim described the first day of meetings as "totally useless" due to the absence of new ideas.

"Maybe it was a necessary meeting, maybe we have to go through that but it was actually totally useless from my point of view, because I did not hear any new ideas, any new suggestion, let's wait for tomorrow," he told reporters.

Agriculture is one of the key bones of contention in the WTO's Doha round of trade talks, which have foundered for seven years as developed and developing countries have bickered over concessions on issues such as farms subsidies and tariffs on industrial goods.

WTO Director General Pascal Lamy has invited ministers from around 35 key countries to Geneva this week in a bid to break the impasse and secure a deal by the year-end, before US President George W. Bush leaves office.

AFP