After a week of more gas than air,meet keeps hope breathing

Hedegaard said the two drafts,which have invited criticism from India,the US and the EU,were getting favourable attention at the ministerial meetings which began on Saturday and that it was possible that a final agreement around those could be evolved.

Having said it would come out with a joint draft along with other major developing economies and African countries,India has decided not to do so for the time being and wait for the other countries to take a more clear stand on the official drafts at the ministerial meetings.

The most concrete progress in the first week was made on the technology front with the conference approving a draft on the sharing of new green technologies,including a proposal from India on the setting up of Climate Innovation Centres throughout the world for the development and diffusion of climate-relevant technology.

Some hope has also been generated by the decision of the European Union,whose leaders completed a two-day meeting in Brussels,to commit US $3.6 billion per year for the next two years to finance adaptation efforts in poor countries. The amount is much less than the estimated US $10 billion required in the minimum every year for the next three years from all the rich countries put together. It is hoped that the EU move would encourage other developed countries also to come forward with their commitments in the next few days.

However,there has been little progress on the toughest part of the negotiations — on setting emission reduction targets for the rich countries for a period beyond 2012 when the first commitment period of Kyoto Protocol comes to an end.

The two official drafts that came out on Friday include a number of options to do this,leaving it on the ministers to come to an agreement over a common figure.