If all goes well, the 194-nation conference under the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will wrap up on Friday with a historic deal sealed by more than 110 heads of state and government.

It would commit major economies to actions that would curb emissions of heat-trapping fossil-fuel gases and generate hundreds of billions in dollars for poor countries badly exposed to climate change.

Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen of host country Denmark was upbeat.

"In less than a week, I believe we will achieve global agreement... an agreement that will set the course for an ambitious approach to our joint efforts in combating climate change," he told a forum on clean energy.

But many delegates complained that progress had been negligible and the mood soured by finger-pointing.

A draft blueprint, presented last Friday, ran into problems almost immediately among developing countries, emerging giant economies, the US and the EU.

Poorer countries lashed it for failing to spell out commitments on finance while the US complained it failed to bind China and other high-population, fast-growing economies to tough pledges on emissions.

The EU said the draft did not go nearly far enough to limit warming to two degrees Celsius, a goal endorsed by many countries. "We are in a situation where we can see that so far we haven't achieved enough," Andreas Carlgren, environment minister of Sweden, which currently chairs the EU, said yesterday.

The EU has unilaterally decided to cut its greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 per cent over 1990 levels, and has offered to deepen this to 30 per cent if it finds other major players willing to make a comparable effort.

But Carlgren ruled this out, blaming foot-dragging by the world's top two carbon emitters.

"So far we haven't sufficient bids on the table," he told a press conference.

"So far the bids from the US and China are not sufficient whereby we can deliver this 30 per cent."

Conference chair Connie Hedegaard scheduled an informal meeting with environment ministers yesterday, followed by a further session today.

Those meetings mark the start of a gruelling game of climate poker before the arrival of heads of state and government on Wednesday and Thursday, many of whom will speak in the conference's plenary session.

Those rostered to attend include US President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Premier Wen Jiabao of China, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama of Japan and the heads of the EU.