China sees the current round of U.N. climate change talks as an opportunity to move forward on decisions that will come next year, but not at the end of the week when the Cancun conference ends, a top Chinese negotiator said Tuesday.

"It's more important to create a kind of cooperative atmosphere among the parties at Cancun , to avoid a split, to avoid a big fight," China 's No. 2 negotiator, Liu Zhen Min, told Dow Jones Newswires. "We expect there to be the real fruitful consultations and negotiations next year," Liu said during an interview.

More than a week into the 12-day talks, most of the nearly 200 nations here realize a broad Cancun accord would be difficult, he said. One key issue that needs to progress at Cancun is the promise of a $30 billion "quick start" fund for clean energy and other projects in poor countries that would be financed by industrialized nations, Liu said. Developed countries "need to agree there will be a quick start," Liu said.

At a separate press briefing, Liu, whose formal title is first deputy head of delegation, said the Cancun talks also must demonstrate unanimous commitment to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that serves as a framework for the global negotiations designed to reduce greenhouse gases and limit global warming. The protocol establishes legally binding emissions reductions for industrialized nations. Developing nations are exempt, but agree to take appropriate steps to limit emissions.

Japan has threatened to opt out of the treaty when its first commitment period ends in 2012. Japan has argued in Cancun that the world's two largest producers of greenhouse gases--China and the U.S.-- are exempt from the treaty since China is a developing country and the U.S. signed, but never ratified, the Kyoto Protocol. Japan wants all nations under one binding treaty.

Liu said without Kyoto there will be no framework for negotiations, and it would be difficult to start over on decades-old climate talks.

The distinction between industrialized nations and developing ones is fair, since poor nations need more time to industrialize and end poverty before being bound by emissions limits, Liu said. China , with more than 20% of the world's population, still has 100 million people living in poverty. China has been adamant that its emissions reduction targets, which it considers aggressive, must be voluntary and not bound by international treaty.

Liu said a news report that China might offer to submit to an international binding mechanism was erroneous. "This has been misinterpreted," he said., repeating that Kyoto is the right approach.

The minimum China expects out of Cancun is "at least nobody will say they will give it up," referring to the treaty.
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