CANCUN: Negotiators from nearly 200 countries are struggling to finalise the outcome of the two-week Climate Change conference that has been enlivened by India's call for emission cuts by countries under an "appropriate legal form".

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh had said yesterday that all countries must take binding commitments under appropriate legal form to check emissions, which is seen as a departure from India's long-held position that it will not accept any legally-binding cuts.

The Indian minister's statement is considered as an attempt to break the stalemate in the conference, which has been marked by differences on various issues.

The BASIC group comprising India, China, South Africa and Brazil, appears to have been divided on the issue with Beijing steadfastly opposed to internationally-binding cuts. But, Ramesh maintains that India still stood by its stand that there can be no internationally-binding cuts "at this stage".

He has rejected charges that India has made a u-turn, adding that he had only "nuanced" the position because he does not want the country to be isolated.

Delegates from various countries said after Ramesh's speech that now there could be some hope of a breakthrough in the conference.

Different areas of concern have arisen with the preliminary text that needs to firmed-up by tomorrow when the conference comes to an end.

Till now, the texts have not matured sufficiently for presenting final outcomes. So, there is a desperate effort to speed up the process, which meant late-night huddles for negotiators.

The text is riddled with contentious issues including reporting of mitigation actions by developing countries and developing countries through MRV/ICA programme, setting temperature goals, the peaking of carbon emissions and long-term goals.

The current text, for instance, says that countries must reduce their carbon emissions by 50 per cent from 1990 levels by 2050.

However, small island states, which are the most vulnerable to climate change, want more than 50 per cent and these nations argue that less ambitious targets may be too little too late for them.

The small island states along with African nations also want the world to work toward limiting the rise of global temperatures to 1.5 degrees, which is lower than the 2 degrees that is currently agreed on by a majority of countries.