Climate talks in Bali head for compromise

By Adhityani Arga

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - U.N. talks in Bali headed for a deal on Saturday to launch negotiations on a global pact to fight climate change after the European Union and the United States settled a row over 2020 greenhouse gas curbs.

But there were lingering disputes about how strongly a final "roadmap" for talks on a broader treaty to succeed the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol should demand action by China, India and poorer nations to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

"This is a compromise. We can live with this," German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel told reporters after a late-night session among about 20 nations reached a draft deal that would be put to all 189 delegations to discuss at 0000 GMT.

The December 3-14 talks had been bogged down by a row between the United States, which opposes a guideline that rich countries should cut emissions by 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and the European Union, which favored the target.

The compromise, reached after days of acrimony at a beach resort on the Indonesian island, simply relegated the range to a footnote from a more prominent position in the preamble.

"Deep cuts in global emissions will be required" to avoid dangerous climate change, the preamble says.

The United States, the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases and the only industrialized nation not party to Kyoto, said it was satisfied by the compromise.

"We can live with the preamble," U.S. negotiator Harlan Watson told Reuters.