India and China, key members of the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) group of emerging economies, aim to present a united front before the world community at Copenhagen, by offering voluntary, but not legally binding cuts, in emission rates as they proceed with their development activity.

Irked by attempts of host nation Denmark and others like Britain to foster divisions within the G-77 group of developing nations, by playing up the alternative draft on offer from the 42-nation Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), that includes Mauritius, Premier Wen urged Singh to help present a more unified front.

Both Wen and Singh will travel to Copenhagen on the 17th to participate in the summit that would approve a workable deal to halt climate change. There is concern, officials said, that efforts to create divisions within the developing countries would dilute attempts to make the rich, developed countries comply

with terms of the Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

According to senior officials, the 10-minute conversation ended with the two leaders agreeing to work together against the developed countries taking positions that could push both India and China into taking legally binding emission cuts. India and China, the officials said, also have to stick together because other components of the G-77, like AOSIS, were pushing in directions which India and China do

not want to go, like accepting

a legally binding cap on

emissions. China and India haveboth strongly opposed contents of the Danish draft, blatantly biased towards the developed countries, which was leaked by a British newspaper and created a furore

soon after the conference opened on Monday, showing up divisions among

the developing G-77 bloc.

Shyam Saran, the Indian Prime Minister’s Special Envoy and top negotiator, refused to accept the draft of what he called “uncooked papers”.

Led by vocal, strong criticism by Tuvalu, a small island state that is in danger of being submerged in a few decades, Copenhagen has seen criticism by the AOSIS group of the large economies within the G 77, like China and India, spill over from within closed door meetings out into the open for the first time.

Shortly after Wen’s conversation with Singh, the Indian Cabinet approved the country’s negotiating stance for the Copenhagen talks.

There are apprehensions over whether India would accept international scrutiny of voluntary measures it may implement at its own cost to bring down emissions, but Environment minister Jairam Ramesh denied any possibility of the country acquiescing to pressure for verification of domestically funded measures.

Ramesh left for Copenhagen today as discussions become more intense to try and

arrive at a functional yet equitable deal based on the Kyoto ‘polluter pays principle,’ which places the onus on developed countries to burden the

mitigation costs of reversing climate change.