When Pascal Lamy took over as director-general of the World Trade Organisation last September, one official said he would have to be "Pascal Zorro" to fulfill all the expectations heaped upon him.

A little over six months later, the Doha round of global trade talks that are Mr Lamy's main preoccupation have given little impression, at least to the outside world, of making progress. A ministerial meeting in London last weekend produced many warm words but few concrete announcements of the trade-offs to be made between liberalisation of goods, services and agriculture.