Copenhagen talks in limbo as poor nations walk out

Copenhagen: The UN-led climate talks in Copenhagen were suspended on Monday after poor nations and developing countries, led by African nations, walked out en masse of the summits main sessions, accusing rich countries of trying to wreck the existing Kyoto Protocol.

The poor countries walked out of the negotiations because they are concerned that the developed countries are looking to jettison the Kyoto Protocol and try and strike a new deal that will shift emphasis from themselves to other emerging economies and even poorer nations.

The poor countries want to make sure that rich nations stick by their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.

The walkout was initiated by African countries, with the support of the G77 group of developing nations. These nations have let it be known that negotiations will not continue to unless talks on an extension of the Kyoto Protocol were given priority over broader discussions on a "long-term vision" for cooperative action on climate change.

The Kyoto Protocol legally binds rich nations to emission curbs and penalises them for failure to conform.

However, it does not include the United States and China, the world's top two polluters, who refused to sign up saying the Protocol was unfair as the binding targets did not apply to developing giant economies that were also huge emitters of greenhouse gases.