(BRUSSELS) - The European Union heads into critical WTO talks next week struggling to show a united front with France in open conflict with EU trade chief Peter Mandelson.

Ahead of the WTO meeting starting in Geneva on Monday, the EU ministers in charge of trade issues will try to close ranks and thrash out a common strategy at a gathering in Brussels on Friday.

Despite the looming make-or-break meeting in Geneva, unity has eluded the EU in recent months as Mandelson came under repeated fire from Paris, which accuses him of offering too generous concessions in the negotiations.

Mandelson, who has counter-attacked by accusing France of undermining him as Europe's top trade negotiator, stressed on Thursday that he had not overstepped his remit in the negotiations.

"We have one mandate, we've been operating within it and we will continue to do so," he told journalists in Brussels.

However, even after EU trade ministers thrash out a common position in Brussels, France -- which happens to hold the bloc's rotating presidency -- is keeping close tabs on the talks with French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier due to attend.

Mandelson, a former British cabinet ministers, shrugged off the prospect of having Barnier breathing down his neck while he tries to negotiate in Geneva.

"He can bring the picnic, we'll need it to sustain us, it's going to be a long negotiation," he joked.

Clashes between Brussels and Paris have become commonplace over the years at each important phase of the WTO talks, with both current President Nicolas Sarkozy and his predecessor Jacques Chirac adamantly against making big concessions on farm products.

France is Europe's biggest agriculture power as well as the largest recipient of generous EU farm subsidies, which campaign groups say contribute significantly to poverty in the developing world.

Accounting for 20 percent of global trade, the EU is a heavy hitter in the WTO, where it has long been under pressure from emerging agriculture powers and the United States to ease its farm support.

The 27-nation bloc has already made concessions on agriculture and Mandelson has ruled out more offers without big moves in return from its trade partners, especially on tariffs for manufactured goods from China, India and Brazil.

However, the European Commission made a gesture on Wednesday to boost the agriculture talks at the WTO by offering to make concessions in a long-running trade dispute with Latin America over bananas.

The commission said it was prepared to accept a settlement proposed by WTO chief Pascal Lamy that calls for Europe to gradually reduce its import tariff to 116 euros (185 dollars) per tonne by 2015 from 176 euros currently.

The commission said that a solution to the banana dispute would in turn give a boost to WTO negotiations on tropical products, one of the main sticking points within the farm talks.

However, chances are slim that the decades-old banana dispute could be resolved ahead of the Geneva meeting because some of the Latin American countries like Panama have already said the EU offer does not go far enough.

"The banana issue is now oversahdowing the possibility to finding final agreement on the tropical products," EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel told journalists on Thursday.

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