The prospects for ministers pushing through an outline deal in the so-called Doha round of trade talks hang in the balance, with the US struggling with scepticism from Congress and its business and farm lobbies.

Pascal Lamy, the director-general of the World Trade Organisation, will make a decision this weekend or early next week on whether to take the risk of summoning ministers to a meeting in Geneva in mid-December. The meeting would be the last chance to strike an outline deal before the White House changes hands, after which trade officials say negotiations would probably go on hold for at least several months.