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DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Trade ministers were sceptical on Saturday about the prospects of concluding stalled global trade liberalisation talks this year, with some blaming the United States for foot-dragging.

Ministers from about 20 major economies held informal talks on the sidelines of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, but Egypt's trade minister said they made little progress.

"I don't think very much came out of this meeting unfortunately," Rachid Mohamed Rachid said.

"If we don't have the participation at ministerial or even ambassador level from the United States, of course it doesn't give us a positive signal," he said. Washington sent only a deputy ambassador and no political representative.

Rachid said there was very little prospect of meeting a G20 goal of concluding trade negotiations this year.

"We are not optimistic, we are very concerned," he said.

Leaders of the G20 grouping of major economies, including U.S. President Barack Obama, agreed in Pittsburgh last September on the goal of wrapping up the Doha round of World Trade Organisation negotiations in 2010.

But there has been scant progress since then and many participants say domestic politics and the impact of the financial crisis and high unemployment in the United States and Europe have made chances of an early trade deal more remote.