The ministers, including those from the world's leading greenhouse gas emitters China and the United States, are gathering on Monday for two days in Copenhagen in the final minister-level opportunity to break an impasse in negotiations between rich and poor countries.

After two years of haggling, the 192 members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have made scant progress.

With the prospects for a binding climate deal approaching zero, German Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen has appealed to all sides to compromise, saying "there was no alternative but success."

In a German magazine interview, Roettgen said the upcoming Copenhagen summit of world leaders in December was "not some abstract round of discussions with experts," but rather a question of destiny "whether our planet survives or not."

He also said that if climate change is not stopped, hundreds of millions of people in Africa would be threatened by lack of water, "and then we would have a gigantic refugee drama."

Non-binding climate deal

Denmark's Prime Minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who is hosting the Copenhagen climate talks, said on Sunday that it appeared many of the world's leaders were eyeing a non-binding "political agreement", instead of an accord to replace the Kyoto Protocol, and would prefer to delay more significant action.

The non-binding agreement would cover key issues, such as curbs on greenhouse gas emissions and would set a deadline for agreeing on a binding legal treaty sometime in the future, but with no time frame.

"I doubt the majority of countries will buy this face-saving plan," said Kaisa Kosonen from the Greenpeace environment group, adding that it ignored the needs of nations most vulnerable to floods, droughts, sandstorms, disease and rising sea levels.

The ministers' talks in Copenhagen this week will be closed to the media, except for a final news conference.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on Monday that she plans to travel to Copenhagen for the December climate conference.

Merkel's spokesman Christoph Steegmans said that the chancellor did not expect the summit to produce a binding accord, but that "an important step toward a treaty" would be made.

gb/dpa/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Michael Lawton