Threatened Tuvalu says rich states block climate aid

POZNAN, Poland (Reuters) - The Pacific state of Tuvalu accused rich nations on Thursday of blocking funds to help low-lying island nations cope with rising seas caused by climate change that could wipe them off the map.

Prime Minister Apisai Ielemia told Dec 1-12 U.N. climate negotiations in Poznan, Poland, that global development should not come at the expense of poor countries like Tuvalu, whose highest point is 5 meters (16 ft) above sea level.

"We want to survive as a people and a nation. We will survive. It is our fundamental right," Ielemia told about 100 environment ministers working on details of a new treaty to fight global warming.

The 189-nation talks are split over controlling planned payouts from a new Adaptation Fund -- due to start in 2009 -- which could grow to about $300 million a year by 2012 to help developing nations adapt to floods, droughts and rising seas.

"Given our extreme vulnerability as a small, low-lying atoll country, we must not sink from the problems caused by the big and industrialized countries," he said.

Ielemia said he was disappointed with the talks and the bureaucratic barriers that rich nations were trying to erect to providing new funds to help poor countries adapt to change.

"(Countries) like Tuvalu need direct access and expeditious disbursement of funding for real adaptation, urgently, because we are suffering already from effects of climate change," he said.

"It seems, however, that some key industrialized countries are trying to make the Adaptation Fund inaccessible to the most in need," he added.

Ielemia said there was a risk that only countries that could afford consultants and work their way through red tape and delays would be able to access the new fund.

The Poznan talks have been marred by fears of global recession. Many nations are reluctant to launch costly new projects to fight climate change, or push ahead with ever deeper greenhouse gas cuts as part of a planned Copenhagen pact.

But small island states say the world must act before it is too late as rising temperatures could melt ice in Greenland and Antarctica. Some have suggested the people of Tuvalu would be forced to migrate to New Zealand.

Even large islands are at risk because global warming may shrink their land mass, forcing coastal communities out of their homes and depriving millions of a livelihood.

"We are not contemplating migration. We are a proud nation of people with a unique culture which cannot be relocated somewhere else," Ielemia said.

"It is our belief that Tuvalu, as a nation, has a right to exist forever. It is our basic human right."

(Reporting by Anna Mudeva; editing by Michael Roddy)