U.S. rejects Bali climate draft

BALI, Indonesia -- The United States has rejected a proposal Saturday by developing nations to clarify their responsibilities to control greenhouse gas emissions, prolonging a tense logjam blocking agreement on negotiations for a new global warming pact, The Associated Press reports.

The negotiations snagged early Saturday over demands by developing nations that their need for technological help from rich nations and other issues receive greater recognition in the document launching the negotiations.

The U.N. climate change conference had been scheduled to end Friday.

But the delegates returned to the negotiating table early Saturday after talks went well into the night before.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who attended the conference earlier this week but left for a visit to East Timor, announced Saturday that he was unexpectedly returning to Bali to help shepherd the talks as they apparently neared a conclusion.

Without specifics, however, some believed the final agreement would amount to failure.

"Let me underline once again that the Bali road map must have a clear destination," said Stavros Dimas, the EU environment commissioner.

But Rajendra Pachauri, who heads the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said such a stance would ignore the other progress being made at the conference. He said simply having a strong statement paving the way for future action would suffice.

"I wouldn't term that a failure at all," Pachauri said. "I think what would be a failure is not to provide a strong road map by which the world can move on, and I think that road map has to be specified with or without numbers. If we can come up with numbers, that's certainly substantial progress, and I hope that happens."

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change passed the Kyoto Protocol 10 years ago, with the goal of limiting greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.

While 175 parties -- including the European Union -- ratified it, the United States has not. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Dan Rivers contributed to this report.

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