The MEF is the new avtar created by the Obama administration by morphing the Major Economies Meeting that the Bush administration had earlier backed. While the Bush administration had steadfastly refused to engage in an international deal, the MEF meet is now seen as a US attempt to push other countries towards a deal more amenable to its interests.

The meeting is expected to be held in London though earlier discussions were being held on organizing it in an Asian country.

The meeting would be one of a series of UN and other meetings being planned for the year even though the chances of a comprehensive climate deal at the final meeting in Mexico have faded.

The first formal UN meet on climate, to be held in Bonn in April before the MEF meeting, is expected to be purely procedural in character but, as a reflection of the wide chasm that continues to separate developed countries from the rest, is bound to see friction.

With the US having made it clear that it would not sign on an international deal until its domestic legislation on the subject is passed, several key players are now looking at the 2011-end meet in South Africa as the earliest that a long-term deal to contain global warming could be thrashed out.

While the Copenhagen Accord was seen to have achieved a semblance of consensus, even though grudgingly, the differences between the US and the developing countries have also widened since the beginning of 2010.

The US has suggested in its latest submission to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that while it doesn't see the formal talks move forward it is keen to operationalise the six key elements of the Copenhagen Accord by the year end.

In contrast, India and China have demanded that the Copenhagen Accord merely be a guiding document and that progress be made in resolving differences that remain embedded in the UN talks with the accord text as a backdrop at best.