UN panel issues new draft at climate talks

As negotiators raced against time to hammer out a deal on climate change, a key UN panel today issued a new draft on measures to combat the problem but provided no figures for long-term goal of cutting carbon emissions and financing for poorer countries.

Environment ministers gathered here were scrambling hard to put together an agreed text for their leaders, who will attend the plenary of the 12-day climate change conference on Friday.

The new draft text, which also did not mention 'peaking' year for greenhouse gas emissions, was issued by one of the two negotiation tracks set up by the 194 nations of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

US President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown would be among the 110 heads of state or government participating in the final leg of the December 7-18 climate talks on Friday.

Developing nations led by African countries had walked out of the climate talks yesterday, accusing the rich nations of not doing enough to arrest global warming and making attempts to undermine the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol, agreed upon in 1997, requires rich nations to cut emissions by 2012 and imposes penalties if they fail to do so. It makes no demands on developing countries.