**Representatives from some 190 countries are meeting in the German city of Bonn in a fresh attempt to negotiate a new treaty on climate change.**There are fears of deadlock as disputes remain between developed and developing countries over who will cut greenhouse gas emissions, and by how much.
The treaty is not due to be completed until a major conference to be held in Denmark this December.
But with time running short this week’s talks are crucial, officials warn.
Although the five-day meeting in Germany is billed as informal in the hope of encouraging a breakthrough, there are fundamental divisions to overcome, says the BBC’s environment correspondent, David Shukman, in Bonn.
Developed countries are promising cuts in their greenhouse gases which poorer nations say are not nearly deep enough.
In turn, there are demands for China and India to commit to cutting their rapidly rising emissions, but both countries say they are still developing and so cannot be tied to any ambitious pledges.
Huge sums
Far from settled is the financial help the most vulnerable countries say they need to adapt to the impact of global warming and to modernise their economies without relying on fossil fuels, our correspondent adds.
Huge sums are being talked about but there remains no consensus on how the money should be raised.
At the moment the draft agreement runs to an unwieldy 200 pages and the problem is that each round of negotiations adds to them rather than focusing attention on agreeing the key details.
The UN’s top climate official said recently that the richest nations would have to put $10bn (£6bn) “on the table” during December’s Copenhagen climate change summit.
Yvo De Boer, head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), insisted the burden of climate change must be shared and that the money would help developing countries.
Leading nations participating in the summit must, he said, sign an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Some scientists have called for a 25-40% reduction by 2020 - a proposal Mr De Boer described as “a good beacon to be working towards”.