The European Union's agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer-Boel told journalists that the collapse of talks after nine days at the World Trade Organization headquarters in Geneva would have "wider consequences than we have ever seen before".

"If we cannot even manage trade, how should we then find ourselves in a position to manage the new challenges lying ahead of us" such as climate change, Fischer-Boel said.

Her point was echoed by Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean, who said that success here in Geneva would have been an "important signal" ahead of new international negotiations on climate change that are set to start next year.

The EU earlier this year pledged to reduce its greenhouse-gas pollution by 20 percent by 2020 compared with a benchmark year of 1990.

Hoping to spur the United States, Japan and Canada, the EU promised to deepen this to 30 percent if other rich economies followed suit.