BEIJING: Chinese premier Wen Jiabao indicated on Sunday he was snubbed by leaders of developed countries during the Copenhagen climate change summit. He was not given an invitation for the small-scope meeting although China's name figured in the list of countries invited to it, he said.

Wen said he came to know of the meeting when the "leader of an emerging country" sent his staff to inform him about it while he was at a banquet hosted by Danish Queen on December 17. He did not name the country, but it could be India or Brazil who had agreed with China to coordinate their moves at the summit.

The Associated Press is setting up a division to help the news cooperative, newspapers and broadcasters sell digital products directly to readers on the next wave of Internet-connected devices such as Apple's iPad.

The AP's chief executive, Tom Curley, announced the new business unit, called AP Gateway, during a speech Friday to the Colorado Press Association.

AP Gateway will focus on expanding such products as the AP Mobile news service for cell phones and the kinds of online platforms that the AP developed for the Winter Olympics and Copenhagen climate talks.

BONN, Germany (AP) - The United Nations says formal negotiations on an international treaty to control global warming will resume in Bonn in April, four months after the failed climate change summit in Copenhagen.

U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said Tuesday the negotiating schedule is being intensified in order to secure a global climate deal at the end of the year. After the Bonn meeting April 9-11, more talks are scheduled there for May 31-June 11.

Even when things were going well in the rollercoaster UN climate talks – which was not very often – Yvo de Boer looked glum. Young observers of the final days in the Bali or Copenhagen conferences felt compelled to give him a hug, ministers knew to give him a wide berth, and other diplomats recognised that his job of twisting the arms of negotiators and bashing politicians' heads together to reach agreement was next to impossible.

amsterdam - the sharp-tongued u.n. official who shepherded troubled climate talks for nearly four years announced his resignation thursday, leaving an uncertain path to a new treaty on global warming. exhausted and frustrated by unrelenting

deal on reducing greenhouse gas emissions at climate talks at the end of the year in cancun, mexico.

years, laboring without success to produce a legally binding pact to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. his departure comes amidst uncertainty as to whether the 193 member nations of the u.n. framework convention on climate change can produce

In the tense run-up to the Copenhagen climate change summit in December, a senior British diplomat warned the Guardian: "We can go into extra time, but we can't afford a replay." At the end of the chaotic summit, that replay — in Mexico in November — was seen as a good result, given how close the entire show came to collapsing.

But now, just six weeks since the summit reached its dramatic but disappointing conclusion, senior figures around the world do not even believe the rematch is likely to be played.

Governments from the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters have met a Copenhagen summit deadline to submit their plans for cutting emissions by the year 2020.

The European Union has set an unconditional target to cut emissions by 20 per cent compared to 1990 levels and is willing to raise that to 30 per cent if other countries make an equal effort.

Australia will have a 5 per cent reduction target with no conditions applying and will only lift its target to 15 per cent or 25 per cent if countries like China, India and the United States agree to verifiable reductions.

Davos leaders, CEOs debate climate change moves

DAVOS, Switzerland — Fighting global warming and protecting the environment dominated the discussions Friday at the World Economic Forum, a month after U.N. climate change talks ended without a binding deal on curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, whose country is holding the next U.N. climate conference at the end of the year, was laying out his ideas in a session exploring what is next for climate talks. Renault-Nissan head Carlos Ghosn, who has championed electric cars, was also on hand.

Reporting from Washington - The Obama administration pledged Thursday that the United States would cut its greenhouse gas emissions about 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 -- a step that would bolster the global warming deal brokered at climate talks last month.

In a letter to United Nations climate officials, the administration formally "associated" itself with the Copenhagen Accord by making the pledge, which it said would be outlined in more detail once Congress passes a bill limiting emissions.

The United States pledged Thursday to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels under an international climate agreement, though it made its commitment contingent on passing legislation at home.

The Obama administration submitted its much-anticipated reduction target to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat under the Copenhagen Accord, a non-binding deal brokered by the United States last month at the U.N.-sponsored climate talks. Under the deal President Obama helped secure in Copenhagen, major emitters of greenhouse gases are expected to "inscribe" their reduction targets by Jan. 31.

There is growing pressure on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, from within and without, to change some practices to ensure the credibility of its future reports.

The latest push came on Monday in New Delhi, where leaders of countries that formed an influential bloc at last month's Copenhagen climate talks were meeting to assess next steps. The Business Standard of India quoted Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, as calling for the panel's next set of reports to contain a broader set of scientific viewpoints on evidence for global warming:

RIYADH (Reuters) - United Nations climate talks are a bigger threat to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia than increased oil supplies from rival producers, its lead climate negotiator said on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia's economy depends on oil exports so stands to be one of the biggest losers in any pact that curbs oil demand by penalizing carbon emissions.

"It's one of the biggest threats that we are facing," said Muhammed al-Sabban, head of the Saudi delegation to U.N. talks on climate change and a senior economic adviser to the Saudi oil ministry.

NEW DELHI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Copenhagen climate talks may have ended with a weak consensus between the U.S. and the BASIC countries with opposition from various other nations, but environmentalists argued that India's claim of bagging a "good deal" is not at all correct -- in fact, it's "baseless".

Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Saturday that the country got a "good deal" in the recently concluded Copenhagen climate summit.

SAO PAULO, Brazil - -

France and Brazil's joint position for key climate talks next month is an attempt to force the United States and China to come to the table with serious greenhouse gas reduction targets, observers say.

Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva unveiled their common stance for the Copenhagen summit next month in a visit by Silva to Paris on Saturday.

Both leaders said they would now try to rally other nations around their "ambitious" position, which aims to reduce greenhouse gases globally by at least 50 percent from 1990 levels by 2050.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and China have agreed to work harder to achieve success at U.N.-led climate talks in Copenhagen in December after Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao discussed the subject, the White House said on Wednesday.

Each country was taking "significant actions to confront climate change and reduce emissions," it said in a statement.

"To that end, the two presidents committed to having their teams redouble efforts to work with each other and other countries to achieve success at Copenhagen."

Bangkok - United Nations climate change talks kicked off in Bangkok Monday with reminders that time is quickly running out for finalizing a new climate deal in Copenhagen in December. "Time is not pressing, it has almost run out," said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Some 4,000 participants and observers met in Bangkok to attend two weeks of meetings aimed at finalizing the negotiating text for the next climate deal to be considered at the upcoming world climate summit in Copenhagen.