"Before we put all our efforts into climate change, poor countries were faced with a list of other problems," said Kandeh Yumkella, Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

Asked what position UNIDO would take at the climate talks in Copenhagen, he told reporters here: "We don't want climate change to cannibalise other development financing."

He added: "To deal with the climate change problem, developing countries are looking for fresh money."

But if that came at the expense of other priorities such as maternal mortality, "then we're really not solving the global problems."

UNIDO would also argue that it was not simply a matter of rich countries forking out money for the poor, said Yumkella.

"The request for putting money on the table is not because developing countries just want cash.

"The fact is there's a moral and equity question here: those who polluted least are suffering the most. There's a moral requirement here that we have to step up to," the UNIDO chief said.

He called on industrialised countries to change their consumption and production habits "to send a signal that indeed we do care about the others."

Developing countries also wanted to grow and to modernise, he argued.

"We cannot have two worlds in the 21st century where we say to some: slow your growth, keep the forests alive so we can do what we were doing before."

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