Major developing countries must play big role in climate deal:US

Copenhagen: Negotiators at Copenhagen are setting up a dramatic finale for next week, when leaders of major nations from around the world will descend here to work out the successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, by firing the first shots of what is expected to be a bitter dispute between the 'developed' and 'developing' nations.

Host nation Denmark has already sampled some tongue lashing from G77 nations over its approach paper, which was termed as retrograde, if not downright subversive of all that was being sought to be achieved at the Copenhagen climate change summit.

Even as the ripples from that engagement had just about begun to subside, the United States on Friday loosened off another salvo contesting key elements of the official draft, saying proposals on carbon emission curbs were "unbalanced".

"In many respects, the text is a constructive step, however, the US doesn't see the mitigation as a basis for negotiation," said US chief negotiator Todd Stern.

Stern told a press conference that emerging giant economies were not being pressurised enough to slash their carbon output, and this made the text "unbalanced on that particular point."

"The United States is not going to do a deal without major developing countries stepping up," Stern said, pointing out that developing countries are projected to account for 97 per cent of global emissions within four decades.