OSLO - The United Nations yesterday issued a range of rival ideas for fighting climate change from rich and poor nations and said the world was "not standing still" in work on a new UN treaty.

OSLO - The United Nations yesterday issued a range of rival ideas for fighting climate change from rich and poor nations and said the world was "not standing still" in work on a new UN treaty.

The 53-page text included suggestions that rich nations set aside up to two percent of their gross national product to help the poor cope with global warming, while rich countries called for developing nations to do more to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

"This document marks an important point on our road," Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, said in a statement that will form a basis for negotiations on a new pact to be agreed in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December.

"With only 200 days before Copenhagen, time gets tighter but the world is not standing still on climate change," he said.

The texts included issues such as 2020 goals for cuts in emissions and ways to monitor actions to curb global warming by developing nations such as China and India. Ideas on how to promote the wider use of carbon markets and ways to protect tropical forests that soak up carbon dioxide were also covered.

The UN panel said developed nations should cut by between 25 and 40percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to avoid the worst of global warming. - Reuters