Former US vice-president and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore arrived at the largest UN climate talks in history on Monday.Gore was greeted warmly as he entered the reception hall where the talks are taking place.The talks have drawn 15,000 participants from more than 190 nations as world leaders hope to agree a deal to replace the U.N.'s existing Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.However deep rifts between rich and poor nations will have to be negotiated before an agreement can be reached. Developing nations want to extend the existing Kyoto Protocol, which obliges rich nations except the United States to cut emissions of greenhouse gases until 2012, and work out a separate new deal for developing nations. But most rich nations want to merge the 1997 Kyoto Protocol into a new, single accord with obligations for all as part of an assault on warming that the U.N. panel of climate scientists says will bring more heatwaves, floods and rising seas. Most developed nations favour a single track largely because the United States, the number two greenhouse gas emitter behind China, is outside Kyoto. They fear signing up for a new Kyoto while Washington slips away with a less strict regime alongside big developing nations. A summit of 110 world leaders will try to agree a solution on Friday.
