Merkel backs climate deal based on population

By Claudia Kade

KYOTO, Japan (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she wanted to offer developing countries a compromise climate change pact based on population size, but warned on Friday that negotiations will be tough.

Merkel, who helped draw up the Kyoto Protocol on climate change as Germany's environment minister in 1997, made global warming and talks over a deal to succeed the protocol the focus of her three-day visit to Japan.

"The question is: at what point can we involve developing countries, and what kind of measure do we use to create a just world?" Merkel said in Kyoto, the ancient Japanese capital where the 1997 protocol was agreed.

Merkel suggested that developing countries should be allowed to increase their emissions per capita while industrialised national cut theirs, until both sides reach the same level.

She brought up the proposal when she met officials in China before travelling to Japan, but the Chinese were sceptical, according to the German delegation.

"Once (developing countries) reach the level of industrialised countries, the reduction begins," Merkel said.

A similar idea was fielded by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the G8 summit with major developing countries in Germany in June.

Under the Kyoto pact, 35 developed nations are obliged to cut emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012.