Trading powers stepped up their efforts to salvage the current floundering free trade talks of the World Trade Organization, with some delegates saying they are moving step by step toward a deal as time ticks away.

Still, delegates at the same time cautioned that anything could happen in the coming days.

"If you ask me whether the talks are progressing or retrograding overall, I think I can say that they are advancing," Akira Amari, Japan's economy, Trade and Industry Minister, told reporters at the WTO late Thursday evening.

But he said, "It would be better to approach it by thinking that the current situation is fifty-fifty and doesn't allow premature conclusions."

"There is some progress," US Trade Representative Susan Schwab told reporters after the fourth day of the ministerial talks which began Monday in Geneva, although she said the outcome so far has been "not nearly as much as we had hoped."

"Let's put it this way, some countries are stretching more than others," she said. "We'll see Friday whether everybody is prepared to do their share."

Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, a key player for developing countries, also expressed optimism to some extent.

"We have moved forward," he said. "I hope that we will be able to move even further."

Since Wednesday afternoon, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy has been inviting only seven trading powers - the United States, the European Union, Japan, Australia, China, India and Brazil - to sit at the table to discuss the main sticking points to work toward an outline deal in the Doha Round process.