China hit back at the US yesterday for belittling its commitment to tackling climate change as negotiations in Copenhagen on reaching a new agreement on global warming moved into a higher gear.

On the fifth day of talks, the United Nations published an official draft text from which countries are expected to produce an agreement next week.

George Soros, the billionaire financier, unveiled a plan yesterday to lend poor countries $100bn to deal with the threat of climate change.

The money would come from the International Monetary Fund, from financial instruments known as special drawing rights.

Most of the world's big postal companies agreed yesterday to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020.

The agreement, brokered by the International Post Corporation, an industry trade body, is one of the first among the prominent players in an industry to cut its contribution to global warming.

Amidst talks of divisions in the G-77, the group of developing countries, over demands from the small island nations, India and China today closed ranks and held telephonic consultations with each other to press ahead with a joint strategy for a successful outcome from the Copenhagen climate change conference.

China will receive no significant funding from the US to combat climate change, the US delegation leader at the Copenhagen conference vowed yesterday.
The statement, which shocked many negotiators, was part of a broader US attack on China and other developing countries for not promising deeper concessions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Amitabh Sinha

In the warm-up here, the maximum buzz and heat has been around two contrasting drafts, one proposed by Denmark and the other by four large developing countries, including India, that have been doing the rounds to be considered as the possible outlines for the agreement coming out of Copenhagen. Both drafts have attracted sharp reactions, mostly negative.

Amid concerns that many countries may be compelled to sign an incomplete political document to get a deal at the UN climate meet, top Indian official Shyam Saran today said no "uncooked" papers should be presented at its final leg.

JOHN HEILPRIN

Some of the poorest nations feared too much of the burden to curb greenhouse gases is being hoisted onto their shoulders

On Wednesday, the small Island nation of Tuvalu led a few developing countries in a walkout from the conferencing, forcing the conference to shut down for a few hours.