World leaders attending an annual Pacific Rim summit will call for urgent progress in stalled global trade talks, according to a draft statement, but their officials struggled today to find consensus on another issue – climate change.

Malaysia’s outspoken trade minister today slammed the European Union for stalling progress in global free trade talks and said next week’s WTO summit in Hong Kong will likely be just a shopping trip for delegates.

Talks designed to change the face of farming around the world collapsed tonight amid differences between rich and poor nations – the second failure for the World Trade Organisation in four years.