India, China object to Bali U.N. climate draft

NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Dec 15 (Reuters) - India and China objected on Saturday to a draft deal at U.N. talks in Bali to launch negotiations on a global pact by 2009 to fight climate change, saying rich nations should do more to lead the way.

After overnight talks lasting beyond a planned Friday deadline, India told a 190-nation meeting that it wanted changes to a final text to strengthen the role of rich nations in providing clean technology and finance to help them fight global warming.

"This is completely unacceptable", a source close to the Chinese delegation said. Soon after resuming on Saturday morning, the talks were suspended to try to resolve the tangle.

But Dutch Environment Minister Jacqueline Cramer told Reuters the European Union, which backed a draft text presented earlier, said the Indian demands were "unacceptable to the EU".

If approved, a draft decision would launch two years of talks on a sweeping new long-term treaty to involve all nations and succeed the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol.

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(Reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison, Sugita Katyal and Gerard Wynn; editing by David Fogarty)