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Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Monday warned that troubled global climate talks were at risk of "failure" and urged world leaders to adopt a more flexible approach.
Rudd, who is due to arrive at the summit on Wednesday, said key polluters like China and India had made positive statements but as the talks enter their second week, a consensus looked difficult to achieve.
"There's a big risk that we will have conflicting views between developed and developing countries," Rudd said. "And there is always a risk of failure here."
Rudd, who will be a deal-brokering "friend of the chair", said it would be difficult to reach a "consensus up the middle" given the often opposed positions of developed and developing nations.
"I think, though, to land a strong agreement in Copenhagen we are going to have to see more compromise all round -- from the big developed economies as well as the emerging economies," the prime minister told Sky News.
"We've got a lot of work ahead of us."
Rudd said cutting greenhouse gas emissions, financing and verification would be major points of discussion at the talks designed to reach a landmark deal that can be endorsed on Friday by about 120 world leaders.
He said Australia had a vested interest in keeping rising temperatures in check because as the planet's hottest and driest continent it will feel the impact of global warming first and hardest.
"We have a fundamental national interest at stake in securing the strongest possible global agreement -- because it affects Australia," Rudd said.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aims to reduce greenhouse gases responsible for warming the earth and prevent dangerous climate change.
