Countries wrangled for hours beyond the scheduled close over the work schedule under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and what blueprint to adopt for further negotiations.

"The negotiations were very tense. There is a lot of mistrust," said French chief negotiator Paul Watkinson.

"Some delegates don't seem to have taken onboard what happened in Copenhagen and the need to gain quick, concrete results."

As the 194-nation forum struggled with a sour mood, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer warned that the process would be dealt a crippling blow if it failed to deliver a breakthrough at a November 29-December 10 meeting in Cancun, Mexico.

Cancun had to yield a "functioning architecture" on big questions, including curbs on carbon emissions and aid for poor countries, de Boer said in an interview with AFP.

"We reached an agreement in Bali (in 2007) that we would conclude negotiations two years later in Copenhagen, and we didn't," he said.

"The finishing line has now been moved to Cancun, and I wouldn't be surprised if the final finishing line in terms of a legally binding treaty ends up being moved to South Africa," at the end of 2011.

"Copenhagen was the last get-out-of-jail-free card and we cannot afford another failure in Cancun," de Boer said. "(...) If we see another failure in Cancun, that will cause a serious loss of confidence in the ability of this process to deliver."

The Bonn talks exposed a rift between developed and developing countries over whether to pursue or quietly bury Copenhagen's main outcome.

This is the so-called Copenhagen Accord, brokered by a couple of dozen countries in frenzied late-night haggling as the summit faced collapse.

It sets a general goal of limiting warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), earmarks some 30 billion dollars in fast-track aid from 2010 to 2012 and sketches a target of mustering 100 billion dollars annually by 2020.

But the agreement came under fire from countries excluded from the small drafting group and failed to gain the endorsement of a 194-nation plenary. Around two-thirds of UNFCCC members have now signed up to it, though.

Some of the faultlines opened up again in Bonn.

The United States and the European Union (EU) said the Copenhagen Accord, despite its flaws, should be included in draft text for negotiations.

"We need a different paradigm and that's what emerges from Copenhagen," said top US delegate Jonathan Pershing to journalists.

Other countries were not keen about incorporating the Copenhagen Accord in the negotiating blueprint, reflecting concern about the document's purely voluntary emissions pledges and the way the deal was brokered.

Left-led nations in the Caribbean and Latin America attacked the Accord as undemocratic and a betrayal of UN principles. They called for negotiations to resume on the basis of a draft that was put on hold halfway through the Copenhagen meeting, delegates said.

After hours of debate, delegates agreed to give the chairwoman of the main working group, Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe, latitude to draw up a negotiating text.

The Copenhagen Accord was not specifically mentioned in this mandate, but Mukahanana-Sangarwe said orally it would be taken into account, along with other documents.

Two extra rounds of talks will take place before Cancun, the conference agreed.

Underpinning the UN talks is mounting evidence that manmade greenhouse gases -- mainly carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels -- are trapping solar heat in the atmosphere.

Within decades, changes to Earth's weather system could spell misery for many millions, hit by worsening drought, flood, rising sea levels and storms, say experts.

earlier related report
UN chief says "time to deliver" on climate change
Vienna (AFP) April 10, 2010 - UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for more political will to tackle climate change and urged Israel once again to freeze settlements to revive Middle East peace talks, in an interview with AFP Saturday.

After a disastrous summit in Copenhagen in December, where states failed to agree on a deadline to reduce carbon emissions that cause global warming, a legally-binding agreement on climate change still appeared far off.

"I take climate change as a high priority... (but) when we will be able to have this legally-binding treaty, that depends on the political will of the member states," Ban told AFP in his plush suite at Vienna's Hotel Sacher.

"Even with limited resources... if (states) put a policy priority on climate change, these limited resources can be invested: this is a smart investment which can create a green economy and green growth by generating more green jobs."

"That is what all leaders believe. Now they must deliver it," he added.

The UN chief insisted: "The Copenhagen summit was a success in mobilising political will. The problem... was there was a clear lack of transparency, of full confidence and trust among the member states."

Now the important thing was to restore this trust to move forward, Ban said, adding that elements from the Copenhagen Accord, a draft deal agreed at the last minute by a few dozen countries in December, must be included in future negotiations.

The next big climate summit will be held in the Mexican resort of Cancun in November and December.

As a member of the Middle East Quartet which groups the United Nations, European Union, Russia and the United States, Ban Ki-moon also renewed Saturday his call for Israel to freeze settlement building, which has stalled peace efforts.

"I'm sorry to say that still the situation on the ground is not conducive to an early launch of negotiations," said Ban, who travelled to the region last month and spoke to Arab leaders.

Israel should "create a favourable atmosphere" to bring the Arab side back to the negotiating table, he argued.

"They should freeze settlements, they should leave this status of Jerusalem (considered by both sides as their capital) to the final negotiation issues, they should not create such negative conditions."

Fresh US efforts to broker indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks last month fell flat after Israel announced plans to build 1,600 new settler homes in east Jerusalem.

Even then, "the proximity talks are not an end in itself, they should lead to direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinian authorities," Ban insisted.

For the moment, no further Quartet meeting was planned, he said.

"We agreed first of all to closely monitor the situation and continue to encourage the parties concerned, the Israelis and Palestinians, to launch proximity talks as soon as possible.

"Whenever it is necessary, we will be able to meet again in the region."

On the issue of Iran's disputed nuclear programme, the UN chief hinted that sanctions might be in order to force the Islamic republic to halt uranium enrichment, which the West suspects could be used to make an atomic bomb.

"Iran should fully comply with the relevant (UN) Security Council resolutions. There are five resolutions already adopted by the Security Council, among which three are sanction measures," he said.

Ban stopped short of making an open call for sanctions however, noting that this was a matter to be decided by the members of the Security Council.

"I am just closely monitoring the situation and I'm doing what I should as a secretary-general, urging Iranian authorities to fully comply" with Security Council and other treaty obligations such as the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Tehran's lack of response to these calls however was "a source of great concern at this time."

Sanctions were looking more likely after China agreed Thursday to join five other major powers for more talks on a fourth set of UN sanctions against Iran, rowing back on its previous opposition.

Ban, a former Korean ambassador to Vienna, was in the Austrian capital for a three-day visit, during which he met with government members, UN officials and the security body OSCE.

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