Geneva ? Government ministers from around the globe gather this week at the World Trade Organization for an 11th-hour attempt at a treaty they hope will provide a massive boost to the world economy.

They face huge differences of opinion, however, especially in the key area of agriculture, where rich and poor nations have vastly different agendas and exporters and importers have conflicting priorities.

“At a time when projectionist pressures lie just below the surface, when people across the world are demanding change, the 147 member governments of the WTO must deliver,” said WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi.

Negotiators were meeting privately night and day to try to find an agreement before Saturday’s deadline. Formal meetings start Tuesday.

The framework should have been completed last September at a ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, which collapsed without agreement. Negotiators then planned to do it by Christmas, but that deadline came and went.

If negotiators fail to reach a deal by the end of July, they realize the U.S. presidential election and government changes in other countries will leave them paralyzed until at least next year.

The treaty framework will form the structure of continued negotiations in the current “round” of trade talks. Though it is only part of the process, many believe this agreement is the crucial one and that the rest of the talks will be much smoother.

Along with Shotaro Oshima, the Japanese ambassador who heads the WTO’s ruling General Council, Supachai on July 16 produced a 15-page proposal on the structure of a future treaty.

On the key issue of agriculture, the document sets out a system ensuring that high import tariffs are cut by a larger percentage than low ones — a key demand of many agricultural exporters.

Oxfam relief workers wearing fiberglass heads of G-8 world leaders plug their ears at a swimming pool near the World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in this September 2003 file photo. The Cancun talks for a treaty to boost the world's economy fell apart without agreement, and this week leaders will try anew to reach a deal. Formal meetings start Tuesday.

However, it also leaves room for nations to make smaller cuts on products they consider “sensitive” — often, products that are important in their domestic farming industry.

The document is short on details, saying simply that the exact formula to be used “remains under negotiation.”

The proposal says all agricultural export subsidies will be eliminated by a date “to be agreed,” a concession made by the European Union, which had originally refused to accept total elimination of the payments.

At the same time, the United States, Canada and others must get rid of their own programs of support for agricultural exporters, it says.

The proposal was mostly welcomed, but some countries — notably a group of importers led by Switzerland and Japan — still say they have big problems with the text. They submitted a set of amendments, but those likely will be unacceptable to other WTO members.