(LONDON) - European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson vowed Tuesday he would not be bullied by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, despite insisting the feud between them is over.

Sarkozy and Mandelson have been locked in a public spat over the British former cabinet minister's handling of protracted World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks on behalf of the 27 EU member states.

Speaking to BBC radio, Mandelson insisted he did not start the argument.

But he added: "I stood up for myself. I'm not going to be bullied. I think it is over. I think everyone recognises that it is not about individual personalities."

The president had come under "domestic political pressures" to protect French business and heavily EU-subsidised agriculture, Mandelson explained.

The spat went public when Sarkozy blamed Mandelson's handling of the Doha round of world trade liberalisation talks for Irish voters' rejection of the EU's Lisbon reform treaty last month.

The pair have traded tit-for-tat blows since then.

The Doha round, launched in the Qatari capital in 2001, has long struggled, with all sides refusing to make big concessions, particularly on agricultural subsidies -- a totem for the French.

Leaders from the Group of Eight club of rich economies said Tuesday that concluding the WTO round of negotiations was necessary for global economic growth.

Crucial WTO talks are due to be held later this month in a bid to break the deadlock.

"There are some, not just in France but in many countries and not just Europe either, who see economic change and what's going on in the world in zero sum gain terms: that if others gain we automatically lose, Asia rises, Europe goes downwards," Mandelson said.

"Well, the global economy is not like that. We need the emerging economies to continue to grow, because they are the ones who are going to be producing the much-needed global demand."

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