Climate climax

The world is expecting us to move forward, Rasmussen said in his first session as the host and chair of the UN climate talks in Copenhagen on Wednesday. The Danish prime minister has taken over as chairman of talks among environment ministers, while his environment minister, Connie Hedegaard, stepped aside to lead informal consultations.

The move came as world leaders had begun arriving in Copenhagen for the business end of 193-nation UN talks aimed at agreeing a global deal to limit climate change and regulate emissions of carbon dioxide.

A rift over substance

Negotiators have just three days left to broker a deal, but days of bitter wrangling and a walk-out by developing countries raised the specter of failure.

The acrimony was palpable with India's environment minister calling Australia a "sort of ayatollah of the single track" in reference to Canberra's support for a single deal for all countries.

Environment ministers have been meeting since the weekend to try to iron out differences between rich and poor nations over these issues, although little progress has been made. At the heart of the mistrust between the various blocs is disagreement over funding from developed countries to help poorer nations cope with climate change.

German Environment Minister Nobert Roettgen said on Wednesday in Copenhagen that a restricted group of 25 countries, among them Britain, Germany and four other European nations, were to discuss ways of helping the conference's chair break the current impasse.

Urgent pleas for compromise

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a dramatic appeal to seize a "defining moment in history" and seal a global pact to combat climate change.

A spokesman for the White House said that US President Barack Obama was still confident a climate pact could be reached, despite the fact that talks between delegations from some of the world's richest and poorest countries ground to a halt earlier this week.

Roettgen also said that he is confident an agreement can still be reached, although he complained that Washington and Beijing remain uncommitted.

World leaders have until a main summit on Friday to agree a deal under a deadline set at a meeting in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007.

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Editor: Chuck Penfold