Ministers from the world's poorest countries yesterday called for complete and immediate trade access to the rich world's markets and criticised the EU's proposal to slash the price it pays for sugar, saying it would damage the economies of poor producers of the crop.

Meeting in Zambia this weekend to discuss strategy for the current Doha round of trade talks ahead of December's World Trade Organisation meeting in Hong Kong, ministers from the 50 least-developed countries (LDCs) called for rich countries to grant a "binding commitment on duty- free and quota-free market access for all products from LDCs to be granted and implemented immediately".