A day after receiving orders from their respective presidents to work harder on the task, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim and U.S. Trade Rep. Susan Schwab announced they will host a series of high-level meetings soon to try to solve differences over farm subsidies and market access.

While the two countries can’t make decisions on behalf of the 150-member World Trade Organization that will craft a global trade treaty, Amorim and Schwab said they will try to resolve Brazil-U.S. trade roadblocks that are shared by other nations and could prompt them to follow suit.

“We hope we can have a breakthrough we can have embraced by our colleagues in the WTO,” Schwab said.

The two met behind closed doors for two hours Saturday morning a day after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and U.S. President George W. Bush told reporters Amorim and Schwab were being told to lock themselves in a room to push forward the so-called Doha round of trade talks.

Bush spoke in Sao Paulo at the start of a six-nation tour of Latin America, leaving Schwab behind after he headed to Uruguay.

Amorim said the meeting with Schwab was not a negotiating session, but that the two nations would set up a series of meetings between high-level Brazilian and American trade officials to try to reach compromises over the sticky trade issues that caused a collapse of the Doha talks last July.

“We’re in a phase of testing the waters to see where we can go,” he said. Brazil and other developing nations want the United States and Europe to slash subsidies for their farmers, while the rich countries want developing countries to provide greater access to manufacturing and service sectors of their economies.

Asked about American farm subsidies, Schwab said that the United States “is willing to adjust our offer when there is more market access on the table.”

Both Schwab and Amorim agreed that the trade talks must be intensified rapidly if there’s any hope of reaching a framework for a trade agreement. WTO negotiators are trying to forge the blueprint of a new global trade accord before July, when Bush’s authority to make trade deals that can be sent to the U.S. Congress for a simple yes-or-no vote expires.

Bush is seeking the renewal of the “fast track” power, but faces an uphill battle in Congress, especially if there are no signs of progress on the Doha talks. Without the authority, it will be much harder for any treaty to gain congressional approval in the United States.

But Amorim acknowledged attempts to revive the WTO negotiations could end up doomed if there is little progress in the coming weeks and months.

“The risk is that the leaders will get tired of this, and say, ‘Let’s give this up,’” Amorim said.