UK accuses China of hijacking climate summit

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today said that UN climate summit in Copenhagen was "held to ransom" by a small group of countries, as his climate secretary accused China of hijacking the talks to block a legally binding treaty.

"China vetoed attempts to give legal force to the accord reached at the UN summit in the Danish capital," Ed Miliband, British climate secretary wrote in 'The Guardian'.

His remarks were followed by the Downing Street releasing comments by Prime Minister Gordon Brown saying that a small group of countries had held the summit to ransom. Brown did not name the countries.

"Never again should we face the deadlock that threatened to pull down those talks. Never again should we let a global deal to move towards the greener future be held to ransom by only a handful of countries," Brown said in comments released by Downing Street.

Miliband in his Op-Ed in The Guardian also accused China of blocking an agreement on reduction in global emissions.

"This was chaotic process bogged down by procedural games. The procedural wrangling was in fact a cover for points of serious substantive disagreement," the British minister said.

Miliband said, "We cannot again allow negotiations on real points of substance to be hijacked in this way. We will need to have major reform of the UN body overseeing the negotiations and of the way the negotiations are conducted."

"We did not get an agreement on 50 per cent reductions in global emissions by 2050 or on 80 per cent reductions by developed countries. Both were vetoed by China, despite the support of a coalition of developed and the vast majority of developing countries," he said.

Miliband said it was straws in the wind for the future as the old order of developed versus developing has been replaced by more interesting alliances.

"The last two weeks at times have presented a farcical picture to the public. We cannot allow negotiations to be hijacked this way," the British minister said.

Besides China, Miliband also accused Sudan, Bolivia and other left-wing Latin American countries of trying to hijack the summit.