Negotiations on new climate treaty have entered their latest phase. Over the next 12 days, representatives of nearly 200 countries are meeting in Bonn in Germany to agree a draft text for a new treaty.

The new accord is to be agreed in December in Copenhagen and will replace the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012. The positions of various countries on greenhouse gas emissions are still far from united. China says the United States and the European Union should reduce emissions by 40 percent. Washington especially finds this an unrealistic demand. China's intentions concerning its own emissions remain unclear.