Accra - The latest round of United Nations climate talks got underway in Ghanian capital Accra Thursday, with over a thousand delegates gathering for a week to iron out the technical details of a new climate change treaty.

Talks in Bangkok in April set up a work programme for a long-term international agreement to be concluded in Copenhagen by the end of 2009.

The Bangkok talks followed on from the landmark Bali Action Plan, which set plans to cut global carbon emissions by 2015 and slash them by 2050, thus reducing the chances of extreme weather events and a rise in sea level brought about by global warming.

Most observers do not expect any great breakthroughs on targets at the latest round of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks, which will largely focus on drafting proposals to be discussed at the next meeting in Poznan, Poland this December.

The meeting will also look at emission reduction rules and tools under the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

UNFCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said that talks now had to begin gathering momentum in order to meet the 2009 deadline.

"We are now eight months into these negotiations, and while progress has been made, there is no doubt that we need to move forward quickly," he said in a statement.

Developing and developed nations have been at loggerheads since the Bali breakthrough, with China and Indian saying that developed nations should take the lead in cuts.

The United States and Japan, however, say that the two rapidly developing nations must also agree to cut emissions.

Environmental campaigners said they saw the meeting in Accra as a chance to thaw relations and that the European Union had a crucial role to play in achieving this.

"Negotiators in Accra can break the deadlock between developed and developing countries," said Diane McFadzien, Programme Coordinator of the World Wildlife Fund's Global Climate Initiative.

"Ultimately all nations need to tackle climate change together, and in Accra the rich countries can live up to their full potential, ideally led by an EU that ... teams up with the emerging economies," she added. (dpa)