Australian PM says Bali climate deal almost fell "in a heap"

Sydney (ANTARA News) - World negotiations on climate change in Bali had been in danger of falling "in a heap" before the United States backed down and accepted the deal, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Monday.

Rudd, who placed himself at odds with major ally Washington this month by ratifying the UN's Kyoto Protocol on climate change, said indications were that further climate agreements would be equally hard won.

The Bali talks ended on Sunday with 190 countries agreeing to launch a process to negotiate a new treaty for when Kyoto's pledges on slashing greenhouse gas emissions expire in 2012.

The isolated US delegation only accepted the agreement after the talks on the Indonesian resort island went into an unscheduled 13th day.

"I would commend the flexibility we saw from the government of the United States in allowing this consensus draft to go forward at Bali," Rudd was quoted by AFP as telling reporters in Canberra.

"There was a real danger during that last day of negotiations it would all fall in a heap."

Rudd said some developing countries had also shown flexibility regarding the acceptance of measurable, verifiable and reportable actions to tackle carbon pollution.

"This is not perfect in either department but it does represent a step forward," Rudd said.

The Australian prime minister, who has been in power for two weeks, said he held informal talks with the US delegation in Bali.

"I do not know, is the honest answer, what the US negotiating position will be during the course of this year," Rudd said. "What I know for a fact is this -- this will be a hard, difficult negotiation.

"This is going to be tough. Again, tough in order to take the roadmap into implementation land," he added.

The White House has since said it has serious concerns about the deal, saying any Kyoto successor treaty must acknowledge a nation's sovereign right to pursue economic growth and energy security.

The US is the only major developed country that has not signed Kyoto.

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