Climate talks seek to salvage U.N. Copenhagen deal

* Talks to show if world agrees with idea of delay

* Denmark says time too short for legally binding treaty

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO, Nov 15 (Reuters) - About 40 environment ministers meet in Copenhagen on Monday to try to salvage a U.N. climate deal next month, after leaders at an Asia Pacific summit rallied round a plan to delay a legally binding deal beyond 2009. The ministers, including from top greenhouse gas emitters China and the United States, are due to meet for two days in a Copenhagen hotel in one of the final chances to break a long-running deadlock between rich and poor.

The meeting will test how far the rest of the world agrees with U.S. President Barack Obama and leaders at an Asia Pacific summit in Singapore who on Sunday gave support to plans by Denmark to agree only a political deal, not a full legal treaty, in Copenhagen.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen outlined a plan for a 5-8 page "political agreement" in Copenhagen to cover key issues such as curbs on greenhouse gas emissions, and that sets a deadline for agreeing a binding legal text sometime in future.

But African nations, the least developed countries, small island states and some European nations have all insisted that a proper treaty should be agreed in Copenhagen.

"Every indication is that (these nations) still want a legally binding outcome in Copenhagen," said Kim Carstensen of the WWF environmental group which also wants a treaty agreed there. "It's just too early to lower the ambition," he said.