World leaders could fail to reach a new climate deal at a UN summit in Copenhagen if rich countries refuse to financially help developing nations tackle climate change, government and NGO officials said at a development conference that wrapped up Saturday.

With less than 50 days to go before it starts, the Copenhagen summit was a central topic of debate and discussion at the annual EU development conference, held in Stockholm.

"We don't think they'll be a deal without the right funding package," Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International, told AFP, urging the European Union to agree on how to finance developing countries' switch to low-carbon strategies.

While most officials remained positive about a climate deal being reached at the December 7-18 summit, Hobbs' comments highlighted a growing concern that efforts to replace the Kyoto protocol could be hampered by the problems of securing agreement between developed and developing countries.

"Things are looking possible, but this is a potential spanner in the works," Hobbs said. "This could be a deal breaker."

Many leaders of developing countries at the conference pleaded for help to switch to cleaner energies, saying their countries were hardest hit by a crisis the developed world helped to create.

"We urgently need your support in helping us adapt to the negative effects of climate change," the presidents of Liberia and Sierra Leone, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Ernest Bai Koroma, said in a joint statement.

They stressed their West African nations were "disproportionately affected by the climate crisis," saying it was crisis for which they were the least prepared.

"Developing countries are of the opinion that they should not have to pay the bill for what industrialised countries have done," said Koos Richelle, the head of EuropeAid, adding that rich countries realised they had to take up a large part of the burden.

"How much exactly is a matter of negotiations, and that will only become clear in the end game, when we are in Copenhagen," saying the European Union would not divulge a common stance before the summit.

"That's hopeless," argued Hobbs, saying Europe had been a leader in terms of emission cuts targets and urging the 27-nation block to reach a common agreement on helping the developing world before the start of the summit.

"We don't think there is room for the European Union to go to Copenhagen without a clear position on how much money its going to put on the table," he said.

earlier related report
US to give threatened polar bears vast 'critical habitat'
The United States on Thursday announced plans to designate more than 200,000 square miles in Alaska as critical habitat for polar bears, a key step towards increasing protection for the threatened species.

"Proposing critical habitat for this iconic species is one step in the right direction to help this species stave off extinction, recognizing that the greatest threat to the polar bear is the melting of Arctic sea ice caused by climate change," Interior Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Tom Strickland said in a statement announcing the move.

The habitat would cover 200,541 square miles (519,399 square kilometeters) and include barrier islands along Alaska's coast, sea ice habitat, land and rivers near the coast where the bears make their dens.

The United States listed the polar bear as a threatened species in May last year, saying climate change has caused a drastic loss of Arctic sea-ice, which is essential for the survival of the bears.

But although the Endangered Species Act calls for a critical habitat to be designated at the same time as a species is declared threatened, wildlife officials under the previous administration of president George W. Bush held off on naming the habitat area.

The Bush administration also pushed forward with the sale of offshore exploration leases in parts of Alaska where polar bears dwell, insisting that developing oil activities in Alaska would not harm the bears.

By contrast, Strickland said the administration of President Barack Obama "is fully committed to the protection and recovery of the polar bear."

But the designated critical habitat for the bears would include "areas where oil and gas exploration activities are known to occur," according to the Fish and Wildlife Services, the branch of the Department of the Interior in charge of nature conservancy.