Top trade officials from the United States, the European Union, Australia, Brazil, India and Japan are trying to salvage the World Trade Organisation's Doha Round.
The round, which was launched in 2001, is meant create an international treaty that would tear down trade barriers and enable commerce to improve living standards in developing countries.
But the deal could miss its end of year deadline, as it teeters on the brink of collapse after years of spats over the reforms needed to complete it.
WTO heavyweights the US and EU have sent trade representative Susan Schwab, while the EU’s trade commissioner Peter Mandelson to try and push the deal on.
Much of the logjam at the 149-nation WTO centres on the farm trade, particularly US farm subsidies and EU customs duties on imported agricultural goods.
The key players are at loggerheads over the relative concessions required, constantly urging one another to make a move.
"I think what we're all looking for now is to get beyond the rock, paper, scissors dynamic," said a senior US trade official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Geneva gathering, behind closed doors at the US diplomatic mission, is scheduled to be followed by further talks here on July 28-29.
The meetings come in the wake of the Group of Eight (G8) summit of leading powers in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The G8, which comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and Russia on July 16 had said that negotiators should bridge the gaps within weeks and help steer the Doha Round to its conclusion by the end of the year.
The following day, G8 leaders joined forces with counterparts from Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa to try to spur the round.
Talks were meant to end in 2004. That target was later shifted to December 2006 because of persistent breakdowns.
Deal rumoured
Rumours have been flying since the G8 summit that, behind closed doors, the leaders cut a deal to end the Doha deadlock.
It has been suggested that US President George W. Bush offered deeper cuts in Washington's farm subsidies, which according to critics skew trade in favour of agribusiness in the United States.
Other WTO members are unhappy with an existing US proposal, saying it lacks bite and would leave the US room to spend around 22 billion dollars -- more than current payouts.
There have been claims that during the G8, Mr Bush offered to set a ceiling of 15 billion dollars.
But several trade diplomats have dismissed the suggestion that the G8 leaders talked figures, with one saying it was based on "very wishful thinking."
Deeper cuts would be a tough sell domestically for the US leader ahead of crucial mid-term elections in November.
Developing countries, meanwhile, also want the EU to reduce its customs duties on imports of agricultural goods.
At WTO talks last month, the EU said that if others made the right moves, it was prepared to shift close to the 54-percent tariff cut demanded by Brazil and India, which steer the powerful
G20 lobby of developing countries.
The current EU proposal is 39 percent, although EU officials have said Brussels could accept 51 percent.
"If we are going to move towards the G20 figures on tariffs -- and we're prepared to do that -- the US is going to have to do the same on subsidies," said an EU diplomat.
Washington and Brussels agree on one thing: they want more concessions from the developing world on trade in services and manufactured goods.