U.N. talks split on aid to help poor cope with warming

By Megan Rowling and Alister Doyle

POZNAN, Poland (Reuters) - U.N. climate negotiators tried on Wednesday to break the deadlock over controlling planned payouts from a new fund to help poor nations adapt to floods, droughts and rising seas.

The 189-nation talks split between rich and poor countries over the Adaptation Fund -- due to start in 2009 -- which could grow to about $300 million a year by 2012 to help developing nations cope with global warming.

Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said that the fund was "close to finalization" but that the standoff would have to be resolved by about 100 environment ministers attending the meeting on Thursday and Friday.

"On the whole things are looking pretty good," he told a news conference of overall progress at the talks in Poznan, Poland, in reviewing work toward a new U.N. climate treaty meant to be decided in Copenhagen in late 2009.

De Boer wants the fund to start payments next year, in a decision he says would be a "cornerstone" of the Poznan meeting.

Adapting to climate change -- for instance by strengthening sea defenses or developing drought-resistant crops -- is likely to cost tens of billions of dollars a year by 2030, he said.

But economic recession is testing the willingness of many nations to launch costly new projects to fight climate change, or push ahead with ever deeper greenhouse gas cuts as part of a the planned Copenhagen pact.

Separately, indigenous peoples accused the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand of blocking a reference to their "rights" to land in a text about a need to safeguard tropical forests under a new climate pact.