In this January 14, 2005, file photo, a Chinese worker walks past cargo waiting to be loaded on to trains at a train station in Beijing, China. Richer and more confident, China is playing a higher-profile role in international trade talks.

Richer and more confident, China is playing a higher-profile role in wrangling over global commerce, drawing criticism from American officials who once prodded Beijing to be more active in international trade talks.

This week in Geneva, China took an unexpectedly prominent part in pressing, along with India, for import safeguards to shield poor farmers.

United States officials blamed them for the collapse of global trade talks. China's envoy countered by accusing the Americans of demanding too much.

Beijing's unusually public stance reflects its status as an emerging power that is increasingly asserting itself on issues ranging from climate change to Africa, buoyed by the rapid expansion of the world's fourth-largest economy.

"China is practising a kind of major power diplomacy. It expects its interests to be respected," said Joseph Cheng, chairman of the Contemporary China Research Center at City University of Hong Kong.

Play a more active role

On trade, he said, "China intends to play a more active role as a Third World leader."

The trade clash highlighted China's unusual economic mix of efficient, competitive exporters and a vast, poor countryside that is home to millions of farming families crowded on to tiny, inefficient plots.

China has been a major beneficiary of trade liberalisation, which helped to guarantee market access abroad for its goods.

But the United States, the European Union and other trading partners say Beijing is violating its free-trade commitments by hampering foreign competition in its banking, finance and other industries.