Brussels - The French government on Thursday was pushing for a European Union deal on fighting climate change in December, despite persistent opposition from Poland, official documents revealed.

Poland on Wednesday threatened to veto a draft EU summit statement if it involved a pledge to approve a sweeping package of laws on fighting climate change in December.

But after a night of intensive negotiations, the French government, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, set out a new draft summit statement insisting that EU member states "reaffirm that (their) objective is to reach agreement in December."

Western European member states backed that call, with Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer saying that "it is clear that the climate package will be agreed in December."

But in a concession to critics, the presidency acknowledged that national differences should be kept in greater account.

Poland's President Lech Kaczynski, however was insisting Thursday that "we will block the package if it is against Poland's interests."

He added that he had not yet spoken with Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, his bitter political rival, on the subject - making it as yet unclear how firm Poland's stance will be.

In March 2007, EU leaders pledged to cut the bloc's emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2, the gas most linked with global warming), to 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.

The EU's executive, the European Commission, in January proposed laws to put that pledge into effect, giving each country a target for cutting emissions based on its CO2 output in 2005.

Under EU rules, the laws should be approved by qualified majority voting, meaning that it would take nine countries with over 90 votes out of the 345 in the EU's council of member states to block them.

On Wednesday, Poland and fellow-EU newcomers the Baltic states, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia issued a joint statement accusing the commission of giving them an unfair burden.

"The vast majority of the EU's greenhouse gas emission reductions have been achieved by less affluent member states at a very high social and economic cost, and it should be recognized," it said.

Italy later added its voice to their protests, giving the group enough votes to block the climate package in any EU forum.

Reacting to that threat, the French presidency on Thursday morning presented a new draft of the summit statement, insisting on the December date but adding that any deal would "have regard to each member state's specific situation."

The presidency and commission will "organize intensive work over the next few weeks in order to find appropriate responses to the challenge of applying the package," the draft says.

That statement sets up for two months of frantic bargaining as the EU's central organs try and balance the need to make concessions to the package's current opponents without either fatally weakening the legislation or antagonizing its supporters into vetoing a compromise. (dpa)