One team of protestors burnt a coffin outside the building

As World Trade Organization (WTO) members held their opening ceremony, anti-globalisation protestors unveiled a giant banner inside the main hall.

Other protesters also tried to swim across Hong Kong harbour to the event.

The protests come amid little optimism that a new global free trade deal will be achieved, with many blaming Europe.

Farming protests

BBC reporter Steve Schifferes said the hundreds of protesters directly outside the conference centre dispersed after an hour's stand-off with police.

"The police began to deploy in vast numbers to contain the demonstration," he said.
A number of South Korean farmers attempted to swim across the harbour to get to the main conference centre.

"About a dozen managed to swim almost the whole way across," said our correspondent.

"Several dozen police boats converged on the scene, and now the police appear to be making them swim back."

'Open-minded'

Thousands of anti-globalisation campaigners are protesting across central Hong Kong, carrying huge banners, chanting and banging drums.

Earlier inside the conference hall, dozens of protestors forced WTO boss Pascal Lamy to raise his voice to be heard as they chanted: "Development yes, Doha no", while unveiling a banner saying "No deal is better than a bad deal" in a number of languages.

Mr Lamy told the WTO representatives that the time had come to be "bold, open-minded and ready to take risks".

While riot police had to use pepper spray to hold back some protesters, the violence was not said to be anywhere near the same scale as during previous WTO meetings in Cancun and Seattle.

Long-term problems

WTO members are hoping to reach an agreement at Hong Kong that would give the world's poorer nations greater access to the richest markets.
Talks and arguments have continued since the WTO started its Doha Development Round in 2001.

The core disagreement remains agriculture, and the extent to which richer nations reduce subsidies for their own farmers and remove import tariffs for overseas producers.

Poorer nations want these subsidies cut because they say their producers cannot compete against the lower, subsidised prices.

They also want a reduction in the tariffs put on the goods they sell to richer countries.

The European Union (EU) is being singled out for criticism because some countries, such as the US and Australia, say it is not prepared to make enough concessions on agriculture.

The aim of Hong Kong was to wrap up the Doha Round, which has already been pushed back.

This now looks unlikely unless, according to Brazilian negotiators, there is some sort of miracle.

While agriculture remains the main stumbling block at the six-day meeting, it will also touch on how to open up service and industrial markets.

Caribbean Interests

Barbadian Prime Minister Owen Arthur revealed what the Caribbean Nations want from the talks:

"We want a development round that addresses, specifically, the special place of small, viable societies in a global economy. Development related issues arising from trade negotiations have to be at the centre of our considerations".

Dominica's Trade Minister Charles Savarin suggests Caribbean countries will have a hard time having their voices heard in Hong Kong:

“I believe that you will see the giants, once more, sparring and locking horns. Clearly, these small vulnerable economies in the world trading system will once more be sacrificed as the larger economies seek to gain advantage in this round."

Progress needed

The US has offered significant changes to the current system but the EU is unwilling to go as far. It also wants concessions from poorer nations.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he expected limited progress at Hong Kong.

"We're not going to do what we initially hoped we do at Hong Kong but nor need it be a disaster," he said.

"What I want to do is to make sure that we make valuable progress by agreeing the structure for the negotiations right across the board, not just in agriculture but in all the areas.

"[We need to then] intensify those negotiations in the early part of 2006 and then reach the grand bargain that we need to aim for."

Mr Mandelson had earlier urged delegates not to concentrate solely upon the farming sector.

"Concentrating on agriculture, important as it is, to the exclusion of other areas, will defeat that ambition," he said.