GENEVA, Sep 20 (IPS) - The argument that drug patents represent an obstacle for poor countries in delivering health services to their populations has returned this week to stir up debate at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and threatens to be a thorn for its ministerial conference in November.

The controversy pits developing countries, which claim the right to copy formulas of medications in order to provide low-cost treatment to their ill during medical emergencies, against some countries of the industrialised North that protect the patent rights of the pharmaceutical corporations.

A special meeting of the WTO resolved Wednesday in this Swiss city to settle the contentious matter in Doha, Qatar, where the ministerial conference is slated to meet Nov 9-13.

Developing countries rounded up consensus for their initiative that the Doha conference should issue a separate declaration that specifically establishes the WTO's position on access to drugs.

The decision was taken during a special session of the Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), the WTO treaty that regulates, among other things, pharmaceutical patents.

The details of including the drug patents question on the Doha agenda are to be hammered out in the coming days by the chair of the TRIPS Council, Chilean Alejandro Jara, and chair of the WTO General Council, Stuart Harbison, of Hong Kong.

The group of developing nations, headed by the African bloc, presented a draft of the declaration proposed for the ministers' signature in the Qatar capital.

The initiative, presented by the Zimbabwe delegation, says the ministers should declare that no TRIPS rule may impede WTO members from adopting measures to protect public health.

The ministers thus would have to recognise that the TRIPS text grants the WTO member states sufficient flexibility to enact health policies that ensure access to affordable medicines without necessarily constituting a violation of intellectual property rights.

The stipulations of the developing countries include the suspension of any legal action for alleged violations of the TRIPS accord, including the lawsuits that currently hang over several countries.

They also cover compulsory licensing, the right of governments to authorise the copying of formulas in order to produce low-cost medications during times of health emergencies; and parallel imports, which make it legal to purchase pharmaceuticals outside the country at lower prices than those available locally.

In contrast to the stance of the developing nations, five industrialised countries - Australia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland and the United States - presented an alternative draft document that outlines the arguments of the pharmaceutical transnationals in the debate.

The independent organisation Oxfam, based in London, issued a statement Monday that the big drug companies, the primary beneficiaries of the globalisation of intellectual property rules, have major interests at stake in the WTO discussions.

The US-based pharmaceutical companies last year saw foreign revenues of 36.5 billion dollars in patent rights and royalties alone, more than half of the world total, according to the humanitarian group.

During the WTO debate, the United States and Switzerland, the two countries that are home to the world's leading pharmaceutical laboratories, rejected the idea that TRIPS rules are obstacles to obtaining medications at low cost.

But Ellen 't Hoen, spokeswoman for the non-governmental Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF - Doctors without Borders), pointed out that contradictions had arisen between the five countries signing the draft document in favour of the drug companies when Canada and Australia presented positions disagreeing with the text.

She commented that it appears the five need to get their internal affairs in order and highlighted the importance of the decision to issue a separate declaration in Doha to clarify the scope of the WTO rules.

The Zimbabwean delegation, meanwhile, stressed that numerous nations, like South Africa, have faced legal problems due to the lack of clear interpretations of the TRIPS accord.

In reference to the South Africa case, the representatives from Zimbabwe charged that corporations and governments ''have questioned our national laws,'' and as such clarification is needed.

The lawsuit against the South African government was filed by 49 transnational pharmaceutical firms in Johannesburg court, citing that patents on HIV/AIDS drugs had been violated. But as a result of national and international pressures, the companies ultimately withdrew the charges.

MSF spokeswoman 't Hoen stated that while the TRIPS Council was in session Wednesday, numerous groups dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS around the world had called the WTO to demand that the organisation pay attention to this health crisis and that it adopt appropriate decisions.

Hoen said she is optimistic about the results of the WTO meeting, adding that the matter of access to medicine cannot be reduced to a debate among diplomats because it involves millions of people around the world.