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The European Union and United States have ended a dispute over curbing greenhouse gasses, meaning UN talks are heading for a deal to launch negotiations on a global climate change pact by 2009.
But disputes lingered about how far a final "road map" for a pact to succeed the UN's Kyoto Protocol should demand action by China, India and other developing nations.
"We support this," Humberto Rosa, Portugal's Secretary of State for Environment, told a session of delegates called to debate a compromise among almost 190 nations after two weeks of negotiations in Bali.
If approved, a draft decision would launch two years of talks on a new long-term treaty to involve all nations.
The talks had been bogged down by a row between the United States, which opposes a guideline that rich countries should cut emissions by 25-40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, and the European Union, which favours a defined target approach.
A draft compromise, reached after days of acrimony, said: "Deep cuts in global emissions will be required" to avoid dangerous climate change.
"I think it is encouraging that the Bali conference has agreed on a decision to launch negotiations with a timebound negotiation by the end of 2009," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.
The UN says a new deal must be in place by the end of 2009 to give parliaments time to ratify and to reassure carbon markets and investors looking beyond 2012.
UN officials said it had not yet been decided how far developing nations should have to take "actions" or make less-demanding "contributions" to fight global warming.
The main negotiating bloc of developing countries, the G77, said it was not ready to fight climate change by cutting emissions from fossil fuels. It fears curbs will cramp economic growth.
- REUTERS
