Danish PM says optimistic on climate deal

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen holds a news conference at the end of a two-day European Union leaders summit in Brussels October 30, 2009.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said on Monday he was optimistic that a politically binding agreement on global climate change could be agreed at a conference next month in Copenhagen.

Rasmussen, speaking in an interview to Reuters in Moscow after meeting Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, said momentum was growing ahead of the conference.

"Convinced is probably too big a word, but I have decided to stay optimistic about this because I have been engaged in talks with many leaders in the last couple of months and I sense a very strong political willingness to conclude a result in Copenhagen," he said.

Denmark will host the United Nations climate deal talks from December 7-18 in Copenhagen. The talks aim to set ambitious targets for cutting greenhouse gases.

"Hopefully, I will be able to issue invitations for heads of state and government in a few weeks time," he said. "I really believe that they will participate if it's realistic that we could seal an ambitious deal in Copenhagen in December."

Developing nations such as China and India say that rich nations must cut emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 -- far deeper than what is on offer.

Developed nations say the poor must also do more by 2020 to slow their rising emissions. China, the United States, Russia and India are the top emitters.

(Reporting by Conor Sweeney; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Conor Humphries)