When the full array of ministers from World Trade Organisation member countries last gathered, at the Mexican resort of Cancún in 2003, the meeting ended in acrimony. The collapse of their talks showed that developing countries were prepared to see multilateral trade liberalisation grind to a halt rather than capitulate to a deal with which they were unhappy. Now, as developing nations - three-quarters of the WTO's membership - begin to eye the next full WTO ministerial after Cancún, planned for Hong Kong in December, their clout is also evident in a more immediate task.

The delicate process of selecting a new director-general for the WTO began in earnest this week. Each of the four candidates is eager to portray himself as the champion of the developing world. But emerging from the WTO negotiations, and threatening to spill over into the director-general selection process, are divisions between developing countries that can be as important as those between rich and poor.