The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, United Nations

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said a summit on climate change here on Monday had delivered "a clear call from world leaders for a breakthrough" at key talks looming in December. "This event has sent a powerful political signal to the world, and to the Bali conference, that there is the will and the determination at the highest level, to break with the past and act decisively," Ban added. He called it "a truly landmark event" The December 3-14 conference in Bali, Indonesia, is tasked with seting down a roadmap for negotiations towards a new planetary deal on global warming after the first phase of the UN's Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012. "I now believe we have a major political commitment to achieving that," the UN secretary general said. Monday's summit was atended by around 150 countries, more than 80 of them at the level of head of state or government, making it the seniormost gathering in UN history on global warming.