(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-05 20:21

While the conference is in its early days, differences already were emerging, mostly over what should go into the "Bali roadmap," which will lay out the subjects for discussions in the years to come.

Japan, for example, offered up a proposal that doesn't include targets, while the EU has come out with a detailed wish list that includes demands for industrialized countries to take the lead in approving mandatory cuts, strengthening the carbon market and boosting funding to help poor countries adapt.

Meanwhile, delegates and activists say poor countries led by the Group of 77, which represents 132 mainly developing countries, have demanded that rich countries speed up the process of providing them with technologies that would help reduce pollution or improve energy efficiency.

They also want funds to adapt to the impact of global warming.

Meena Raman, chairman of Friends of the Earth International, said marathon debates over the issue, some running late into the night, indicated that the West wasn't taking their concerns seriously.

"How on earth can you talk about targets if you don't want to engage on the scope, the depth and need of technology?" she asked reporters. "In the last two days, the sincerity and urgency that is needed and goodwill from the (West) is not happening."

Few had criticism for Australia, however.

Rudd's Labor Party swept to power last month, ending more than 11 years of conservative rule under former Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch ally of US President Bush.

Rudd has said he wants Australia to become a broker through "creative middle-power diplomacy." Though small by population, it is wealthy, developed, and has influence among its allies like the United States and Britain, as well as trade partners such as China.

"We've had a bad record on climate change," said Rudd, who is due to arrive in Bali next week. "It's time to put that behind us. I believe that we now need to do whatever we can to bridge the gap between the developed and developing worlds, because right now the gap is huge."

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