Disagreements between rich and developing countries came into the open on Sunday as the world's top 20 greenhouse gas emitters, including India, worked to lay the groundwork for a new deal on climate change.

The developed and developing countries, whose greenhouse gas emissions account for about 80 per cent of the global total, were wrapping up the two-day talks hoped to jump-start negotiations on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

But developing countries voiced scepticism about the meeting, saying they should not be considered in the same league as major industrialised countries when deciding on future cuts to gas emissions, blamed for global warming.

“India, for example, has an emission of one tonne per capita. The US is 20 tonnes per capita. So I have no idea why India should be a major emitter,” Indian climate official Ajay Mathur said late yesterday.

The South African team was also highly critical of saying the meeting involved “ 20 major emitters”, Japanese trade minister Akira Amari said.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair opened the conference on Saturday.

The United States is the only major industrial country to shun the Kyoto Protocol, arguing that it is unfair by making no demands of fast-growing emitters such as China and India.

But virtually all countries agreed in talks in December in Bali to be part of the negotiations to draft a successor to the Kyoto treaty, whose obligations run out at the end of 2012.

The next round of negotiations starts at the end of the month in Bangkok. Blair has been tasked with trying to bridge the gaps to help meet a UN-backed deadline of sealing Kyoto’s successor treaty by the end of 2009.

The weekend talks are not aimed at coming up with a deal but will draft a chairman's summary to be presented to July's summit of the Group of Eight rich nations in northern Japan.