Rudd, who is due to arrive at the summit on Wednesday, said key polluters like China and India had made positive statements but as the talks enter their second week, a consensus looked difficult to achieve.

"There's a big risk that we will have conflicting views between developed and developing countries," Rudd said. "And there is always a risk of failure here."

Rudd, who will be a deal-brokering "friend of the chair", said it would be difficult to reach a "consensus up the middle" given the often opposed positions of developed and developing nations.

"I think, though, to land a strong agreement in Copenhagen we are going to have to see more compromise all round -- from the big developed economies as well as the emerging economies," the prime minister told Sky News.

"We've got a lot of work ahead of us."

Rudd said targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, financing and verification would be major points of discussion at the talks designed to reach a landmark deal that can be endorsed on Friday by over 100 world leaders.

He said Australia had a vested interest in keeping rising temperatures in check because as the planet's hottest and driest continent it will feel the impact of global warming first and hardest.

"We have a fundamental national interest at stake in securing the strongest possible global agreement -- because it affects Australia," Rudd said.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aims to reduce greenhouse gases responsible for warming the earth and prevent dangerous climate change.

It is hoped the conference will produce pledges to curb carbon emissions from participating nations and establish a way to provide billions of dollars in help to poor countries facing urgent problems dealt by climate change.

Rudd has vowed to introduce a cap-and-trade carbon emissions scheme which could cut Australia's greenhouse gas pollution by up to 25 percent but has been thwarted by a conservative opposition which has twice rejected the legislation.

The prime minister, who won office in 2007 in an election in which climate change was a key issue, has been forced to head to Copenhagen without parliamentary approval for the initiative.

Speaking to journalists ahead of his departure, Rudd warned that without action Australia would face harsher droughts, more bushfires and coastal inundations and the loss of agriculture and natural assets.

"The responsible course of action is to bring about the strongest set of policies at home through a carbon pollution reduction scheme and the strongest possible agreement around the world, so that we can cool the planet," he said.

"That's our mission in Copenhagen. It will be a very tough set of negotiations," he said in Canberra.

"The outcome is far from certain, but we owe it to our kids and our grandkids to give this our every effort to bring about the best solution for Australia and for the world."

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