Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim Friday blamed the US for a lack of progress in global trade talks and warned against "greed" which would doom any deal.

"The big issue is sectorals and I already gave the reason because there is an effort to rebalance the package in favor of one rich country. Of course it's a powerful country," Amorim told reporters in Geneva without mentioning the US by name.

The so-called sectoral initiative calls for specific industry sectors to be submitted to sharper tariff cuts than the overall general level of reductions.

Signing up to the initiative is voluntary, although Washington wants developing countries Brazil, India and China to participate, arguing that the initiative would be meaningless in some sectors if it didn't involve them.

Amorim spoke ahead of a decision to be made by WTO head Pascal Lamy on whether to hold a ministerial meeting this month to broker a breakthrough in the trade talks.

The Brazilian finance minister said the word to describe any failure by countries to conclude a global trade liberalization pact would be "greed."

"If there is failure or postponement, the most appropriate word that would apply would be greed," he said.