WASHINGTON -- With trade representatives from the Americas split on when to achieve a hemispheric free trade zone -- a key U.S. policy goal -- Central American negotiators prepare for a key round of trade talks Monday with U.S. officials.

Following a meeting outside Washington, trade officials from 14 countries from across the Americas were divided on how and when to implement plans for a planned free trade zone stretching from Alaska to southern Argentina, a market of 823 million people.

The plan, known as the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), has been a cornerstone of US foreign policy since presidents from 34 countries in the western hemisphere -- with Cuba the notable exception -- agreed to the plan in 1988.

The trade officials held a meeting at the conference center in Maryland, outside Washington, that ended Friday.

At the event, U.S. Trade Representative Richard Zoellick argued that the FTAA January 2005 deadline should be met, and that the controversial topics of dumping allegations and agricultural subsidies should be handled at the World Trade Organization.

The other position, advocated by Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, seeks to postpone the FTAA implementation and transfer all outstanding issues -- including services, investments, and government purchases, as well as the agriculture and dumping allegations -- to the WTO, or if necessary, resolve them in bilateral talks. Officials after the meeting "were very divided" between the two positions, a South American source at the meeting told AFP.

Brazil wants to slow down the FTAA process, believing the Mercosur trade bloc -- which groups the South American giant with Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay -- should first be better consolidated and serve as as a balance in negotiations.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva even wants to merge Mercosur with the Andean Group, the region's other large trade bloc.