Talks to complete the UN's Kyoto Protocol on global warming continued into Sunday night with no sign of any concessions from three hardline countries and reports of a split among developing countries.
Dutch Environment Minister Jan Pronk, who chairs the talks, said in a status report that a proposed compromise still had to overcome the objections of three countries, which delegates named as Australia, Canada and Japan.
The trio were demanding changes to proposed finance provisions and clauses on giving Kyoto legal teeth, Pronk said.
The deal also had to win the support of a bloc of developing countries on several points, especially funding provisions, he said.
Pronk said he would continue to foster contacts between regional blocs of countries, and hoped to present a "proposal" to environment ministers at another meeting at 1830 GMT.
But this meeting was later "deferred," according to an announcement, which did not give further details.
The ministers have given themselves until Sunday night to complete Kyoto's book of rules and procedures. The deal on the table was proposed by Pronk late Saturday in a bid to end the deadlock.
Pronk added that the 15-nation European Union was holding talks with a bloc of developing countries with the idea of making a "political agreement" on finance, one of the unresolved issues in the talks.
Meanwhile, the negotiating process appeared to become even more complicated amid reports that the developing countries were deeply split over the Pronk package.
Pronk's deputy, Raul Estrada said members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) were against the deal.
"The OPEC countries haven't approved the Pronk (compromise) text and this prevents a consensus in the G77," Estrada said, referring to the Group of 77 and China, a bloc that in spite of its name has 143 members.
A delegate with a non-governmental organisation said Malaysia had mounted a passionate defence of the deal and the cost to the environment if Kyoto failed. This intervention was loudly applauded by several dozen G77 countries.
Kyoto commits 38 industrialised countries to making a 5.2-percent cut in global emissions of six "greenhouse gases" by a 2008-2012 timeframe compared with 1990 levels.
These carbon-rich gases - overwhelmingly the result of burning fossil fuels that have powered the rise of rich countries - are driving the Earth to possibly disastrous climate change, scientists say.
The EU said it would reluctantly accept Pronk's plan even though it would require them to make concessions that would weaken Kyoto's effectiveness.
OPEC countries have been demanding their own concessions under Kyoto, clamouring for it to include compensation for oil-exporting nations whose revenues will be hurt from the switch out of carbon-based fuels.
They are also demanding the end to subsidies for coal, a competitor fossil fuel.
AFP