The report released Friday by the UN's leading body on global warming lists nuclear power among the technologies available to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

However, it also mentions safety concerns, the threat of weapons proliferation and waste disposal as constraints on the use of nuclear power.

Nuclear was widely seen as a key sticking point at the conference, which ran Monday to Friday and aimed to lay out affordable ways to minimise the impact of climate change.

Gavin Edwards, Greenpeace head of climate and energy, said the United States had lobbied for its inclusion, while Germany and Austria were the main dissenters.

"We do not endorse, we do not recommend, we only analyse, we lay out various options. We have laid out what it can achieve and (at) what costs," said Bert Metz, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

"We do not only focus on the carbon dioxide aspects, we provide the information so that decision makers can use that to make up their minds if they want to use this option or not."

Nuclear supporters hail it as a clean energy which will help lessen the world's dependence on polluting fossil fuels.

But green groups decry it as unclean and unsafe, arguing that there is still no safe way to dispose of radioactive waste.

Edwards said governments should steer clear of nuclear as a solution to climate change, and instead throw their weight behind renewable energy, such as solar and wind power.

"(With) nuclear energy, there is only a small potential, and it (the report) lays out three important caveats," he said, referring to the IPCC's safety concerns.

"With nuclear, all the policy makers will see are controversies. We think the choice is easy."

Edwards said the US had lobbied for a sentence saying nuclear could have an 18-percent share of the electricity market by 2030.

"Suddenly they burst into life when it came to nuclear power," he told AFP.

"There was a discussion whether (to include) a sentence concerning the nuclear option for mitigation, which took some time to agree," said Italian delegate Marzio Galeotti.

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