China adds to climate change row

China, the world’s biggest polluter, today accused developed countries of backtracking on their duty to fight climate change.

In sharp comments made as the atmosphere at the Copenhagen climate conference grows more divisive, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said there had been “some regression” on the part of developed countries on their position regarding financial support.

The change in their position “will hamper the Copenhagen conference,” she said.

China and the United States – the world’s top two carbon polluters – have been at odds in Copenhagen.

China believes the US and other rich nations have a heavy historical responsibility to cut emissions, and any climate deal should take into account a country’s development level.

China is grouped with the developing nations at the talks. But the US does not consider China to be a financial aid priority.

“We still maintain that developed countries have the obligation to provide financial support,” the spokeswoman said, adding that it was “the key condition for the success of the Copenhagen conference.”

The conference ends on Friday and arguments between countries yesterday disrupted a timetable for government ministers to negotiate a host of complex issues.

Talks were halted most of the day, resuming only after conference president Connie Hedegaard of Denmark assured developing countries she was not trying to kill the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 document that requires industrial nations to cut emissions and imposes penalties if they fail to do so. Kyoto makes no demands on developing countries.

US President Barack Obama, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and more than 110 other world leaders are scheduled to arrive in Copenhagen in the next several days to cap two years of negotiations on an agreement to succeed Kyoto.