Friday September 1 2:21 p.m. EDT

U.S., Canada Open Trade Talks

WASHINGTON (Reuter) - U.S. and Canadian officials met Friday to begin to plan their next move after a year-long truce on a bitter wheat fight ends in less than two weeks.

But U.S. wheat industry sources were not looking for major progress to be made at the talks, and trade officials said that more consultations would almost certainly be necessary to resolve the long-simmering dispute.

The meeting was being hosted by the U.S. Trade Representative's Office.

The talks are the first face-to-face meeting between the director-level officials on what to do when a U.S., Canada Memorandum of Understanding on Canadian wheat shipments entering the United States expires September 12.

The wheat agreement capped Canadian durum shipments into the United States at 1.5 million metric tons for 12 months.

It was agreed to after American wheat producers in the uppper midwestern United States had complained that a surge of Canadian durum shipments coming into that region last year was unfairly cutting into their markets, and Washington charged that U.S. farm programs were being hurt.

Speculation has swirled recently that Washington could be softening its stance on extending the import quota and instead leaning towards establishing some sort of a monitoring system of cross-border grain trade.

U.S. trade officials, however, have not confirmed those reports, and have said that a variety of options on how to settle the dispute are being considered.