* U.S. and India likely to discuss safeguard mechanism
* WTO chief expected to talk about latest WTO progress
* Indonesia econ min to officially open Cairns Group meeting
By Sunanda Creagh and Gde Anugrah Arka
NUSA DUA, Indonesia, June 8 (Reuters) - The United States and India are due to meet on Monday on the sidelines of a trade meeting in Bali for talks expected to cover key sticking points behind the collapse of global trade talks last year.
Trade ministers came close in July 2008 to a deal on the Doha round of talks, launched in the Qatari capital in late 2001 to help poor countries prosper through trade.
But the talks collapsed over differences between Washington and emerging economies spearheaded by India over a proposed safeguard to help farmers in poor nations cope with surges in imports.
The global crisis has increased pressure for protectionism, but there are also hopes that political conditions for a world trade deal have improved and a spokeswoman for U.S. trade representative Ron Kirk said he would meet India's new trade minister Anand Sharma during the Cairns Group talks in Bali.
"They will meet today," spokeswoman Carol Guthrie said. "I believe they sat next to each other at dinner last night and certainly they were talking."
"I think Ambassador Kirk will enjoy the opportunity to discuss multilateral and bilateral trade issues with his counterpart," she said. "They are both relatively new and will get together to get to know each other and discuss things generally."
The Doha deal is estimated to be worth $150 billion for the world economy and is even more important now that the world is facing its worst economic crisis in decades.
U.S. TRADE REVIEW
Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that the new U.S. and Indian trade figures would provide a "fresh perspective on how the issues in global trade can be solved."
The Obama administration is conducting a review of U.S. trade policy, including efforts to reach a deal on Doha, and some of America's trading partners have been impressed by Kirk's conciliatory style, though they are still waiting to see the substance.
Muhammad Zia-ur-Rehman, secretary of Pakistan's Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, said negotiations on a proposed "special safeguard mechanism" -- under which developing nations could temporarily raise tariffs on imported goods when prices on their own produce drop -- had stalled but there was hope of reviving them this week.
"There seems to be a bit of a deadlock for the last few months, but we are trying. It's better to try to persuade and talk to one another," he said. "I very much hope it can be resolved this week, but you never know."
Zia-ur-Rehman also said U.S. and European Union subsidies continued to be the sticking point in negotiations after both introduced dairy export subsidies this year.
The World Trade Organisation's Director-General Pascal Lamy is due on Monday to brief the meeting of the Cairns Group -- 19 nations accounting for more than 25 percent of the world's agricultural exports -- on the latest progress on the global trade talks, officials said. India, the United States and EU officials are also attending the talks.
Lamy, who has been trying to edge countries back to the table for full-fledged negotiations, said in late May that enough time had passed to have another shot at a global free trade deal.
The Cairns Group consists of Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, and Uruguay.
(Editing by Ed Davies and Bill Tarrant)