Poznan, Poland - Climate negotiators struggled Friday to bridge gaps between rich and poor nations as this year's main UN global warming talks headed toward the finish line.

Hours before the 189-nation conference was to end, delegates haggled over issues like financing for projects to protect developing nations against effects of climate change such as rising seas.

Poznan, Poland - Any deal to cut emissions of gases blamed for global warming must include all countries or risk failure in the US Senate, a prominent US Democratic senator said Thursday.

Senator John Kerry's comments came during a UN climate conference. They injected a note of caution into the hopes pinned on president- elect Barack Obama, who has pledged to make the United States a leader in fighting climate change.

"The United States will assume its responsibilities - I am confident - for mandatory reductions," Kerry told reporters. "But we will not pass a treaty unless it is a global solution."

Poznan, Poland - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged rich and poor nations Thursday to agree on new steps to fight global warming, saying the United States and Europe must lead the way in avoiding a climate "catastrophe."

Addressing 189-nation talks on climate change, Ban said the global financial crisis was a chance to speed investment in clean technology.

He evoked the New Deal, a massive public works programme launched by US president Franklin D Roosevelt during the Great Depression.

Poznan, Poland - The European Union reacted coolly Wednesday to calls by poor and island nations to take bolder action against global warming, saying such an effort may be "very costly."

The conflict is one of many playing out at this year's main UN climate conference, where some 190 countries are trying to pave the way for a global deal next year to curb emissions of so-called greenhouse gases.

Poznan, Poland - UN climate change talks focussed Tuesday on how rich countries can help poorer nations curb emissions of global-warming gases, with governments struggling to craft a "shared vision" for a wider deal due within a year.

Providing so-called clean technology to emerging nations like China and India - and how to pay for it - is a key sticking point at this year's UN conference that began Monday.

At issue are emissions of gases, mainly carbon dioxide created when fossil fuels burn, that scientists say are changing Earth's climate. China, but also many countries in eastern Europe, rely heavily on cheap coal for their energy needs.

Poznan, Poland - Reaching a global climate deal by the end of next year will be difficult, even with Barack Obama as US president, the top US envoy at UN negotiations said Monday.

Harlan Watson, a State Department official representing the Bush administration at global warming talks in Poland, also said he expects no agreement on target dates for specific cuts in greenhouse gases to emerge from the two-week conference.

US officials were in an awkward position at the 190-nation talks, pledging to negotiate constructively while everyone else waits for Obama to re-energize US climate policy after taking office on January 20.