Suspicions among nations hold back climate pacts

UNITED NATIONS, May 10 (Reuters) Ministers meeting on solutions to energy efficiency, cuts in carbon emissions and global poverty do not trust each other enough to come up with concrete measures by tomorrow, diplomats say.

Former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland said the current annual meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, the key UN intergovernmental body on the environment, was hampered by a ''deep-rooted lack of trust.'' ''Many industrialized countries believe that the developing countries are unwilling and that they are doing too little,'' she told the conference yesterday.

The United States, which has not committed itself to mandatory caps on greenhouse gases, looks to China and India to do so first.

But China wants the United States to make a major commitment, like the European Union has done, saying its emissions of carbon dioxide, a by-product of burning fossil fuels, is far below that of the United States on a per capita basis.

''Many developing countries believe the industrialized world has defaulted on the promise of financial and technical assistance,'' Brundtland said. ''Many countries are concerned with costs and competitiveness and many are reluctant to undertake obligations that others will escape.'' Brundtland headed a UN environmental commission that in 1987 developed the concept of sustainable development.

Developing nations also fear that progress in environmental programs would be at the expense of development. A UN report timed to the meeting warned that growth of biofuels like ethanol was resulting in higher food prices by diverting corn for fuel.

''Progress in the environmental pillar of sustainable development should be matched by simultaneous progress on the economic and social pillars as well,'' said Malik Amin Aslam, Pakistan's minister of state for environment.

The conference, aims to produce policies to advance long-term energy solutions that can contribute to economic and social development while protecting the environment. The object is to persuade developing nations to leapfrog past industrial countries dependent on fossil fuel.

But new commitments are scarce.

To this end, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wants countries to discuss and later agree on global measures on climate change in make-or-break talks later this year.

He has appointed three envoys -- Brundtland, former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and former South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung-soo -- to talk to heads of government about a possible meeting on global warming in September.

The conference would be held on the fringes of the annual UN General Assembly ministerial meeting, Lagos said.

And in December, in Bali, Indonesia, The United Nations hopes to launch negotiations on the Framework Convention on Climate Change of which the Kyoto Protocol was an offshoot.

That treaty, which only includes industrial nations except for the United States and Australia, expires in 2012, leaving the world without agreed reductions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions.

''The time for diagnosis is over,'' Lagos said, pointing to definitive UN reports on the dangers of climate change.

Asked who would approach U.S. President George W Bush, Brundtland said that task would be left to the UN secretary-general.

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