Danish Prime Minster Rasmussen no more in favour of a new draft at climate summit

Copenhagen, Dec.17 (ANI): Ahead of the arrival of world leaders in Copenhagen, there were indications that to break the ice at the climate summit, negotiators might reckon existing United Nations texts, presented at the meeting on Wednesday which outlined possible elements of a deal to contain global warming by a united effort of countries across the world.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said that negotiators at the 193-nation meeting would consider existing UN texts presented to the meeting on Wednesday that outlined possible elements of a deal to combat global warming.

Rasmussen said: "No other texts will be used."

"The conference is now at a critical juncture and we have now agreed how to proceed. We now rely on the willingness of all parties to take that extra step to make that deal that is expected of us," Rasmussen added.

Developing nations had objected to the probability of new texts from Denmark, saying it favoured developed nations.

According to United Nations climate change head Yvo de Boer, the process towards a climate change deal was moving again after grinding to a halt on Wednesday.

Danish Minister Connie Hedegaard would chair both sets of talks. One text suggests elements such as a halving of world greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 or deep cuts in emissions by developed nations by 2020.

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, is expected to make an intervention at the plenary of the 15th Conference of Parties on Friday which would be addressed by Denmark Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen and UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon.

World leaders, including US President Barack Obama, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, will also be at the plenary where they would try to reach a political agreement to tackle global warming.

The fate of the climate change talks hung in a balance as differences persisted between rich and developing nations over taking legally binding carbon emission cuts.

While the industrialised nations want key developing countries like China and India to agree to emission cuts, the emerging economies are citing historical responsibility and insisting that the rich nations should take lead, as it was they who had created the problem. (ANI)