POZNAN, Poland, Dec 11 (AlertNet) - Tuvalu, a Pacific country vulnerable to rising seas, joined forces with other island nations at climate change talks in strongly criticising slow progress on launching a U.N. fund to help them adapt to the effects of global warming.

Apisai Ielemia, Tuvalu's prime minister, accused "some key industrialised countries" of trying to make the Adaptation Fund - which will be funded by a levy on carbon offsets from clean energy projects - inaccessible to those most in need.

"We are deeply disappointed with the manner some of our partners are burying us in red tape," he told the gathering of environment ministers in Poznan, where nearly 190 governments are working on details of a new treaty to fight climate change.

The U.N. and aid groups say poor countries will require tens of billions of dollars each year to help them cope with floods, droughts, storms and rising seas, which are set to get worse as global temperatures rise. But funds available so far amount to only a few hundred million dollars.

Grenada's environment minister, Sylvester Quarless, said countries from the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) would raise the issue with other ministers. "The lack of progress on the implementation of adaptation ... and on the Adaptation Fund Board does not give us confidence that this process is sensitive to our needs," he told the meeting, which ends on Friday.

Denis Lowe, environment minister for Barbados, said his country was prepared to reduce emissions, but rich nations should take the lead.

"Vulnerable countries ... must be supported in our efforts to adapt to a phenomena caused by others," he said. "This will require a fraction of the trillions mobilised in short order to address the global financial crisis."

Meanwhile, wrangling continued elsewhere in the conference centre over how developing countries should get access to the money that will flow into the Adaptation Fund once it irons out legal and technical details and starts turning emissions credits into cash.

U.N. climate negotiators failed on Wednesday to break a deadlock over controlling planned payouts from the fund, and the head of the fund's board told AlertNet on Thursday morning there were still two major sticking points.

The most important disagreement turns on whether governments should be allowed to apply directly to the board for funding for their adaptation projects before it has legal status and operating procedures in place to be able to handle the requests.

The European Union was asking for "direct access" to be delayed, while developing countries wanted it to happen right away, chair Richard Muyungi said.

Developing countries, along with the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, Yvo de Boer, want the fund to start payments early next year, in a decision de Boer said would be a "cornerstone" of the Poznan meeting.

"The most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change must be able to access this fund without delay," said the Tuvaluan prime minister, adding that his people had a right to survive as a nation and were not contemplating leaving their islands.

He also said the United States and major developing countries should contribute to a new "arrangement" for adaptation that Tuvalu is seeking at the Copenhagen meeting in late 2009, where countries are due to finalise a pact to replace or extend the Kyoto Protocol. It should include an international insurance mechanism to ensure vulnerable countries could recover from the impacts of climate change, he said.

COPING WITH RISING SEAS

Nguyen Thien Nhan, deputy prime minister of Vietnam, said his country had experienced dramatic impacts from climate change in the past 10 years, through more frequent and intense floods, storms, typhoons and droughts.

Vietnam proposed that the 10 largest carbon emitters among industrialised countries - responsible for 40 percent of the world's emissions - should set up a programme to support the five nations that would be worst hit by rising seas, including itself, the Bahamas, Egypt and Suriname.

Nguyen called for governments to work towards agreement on this at Copenhagen.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the conference that adapting to climate change and reducing the risks it poses would be "key" to a long-term vision on tackling climate change.

"The world's poorest should not suffer first and worst from a problem they did least to create," he said.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told the conference his government was making $500 million available to help poor countries adapt over the next three years. It had not yet been decided how the money would be spent, his spokeswoman said.

"Funding for adaptation is urgently needed, so this is most welcome," said Barry Coates, senior executive with Oxfam.

But the aid agency cautioned the grant was no substitute for an agreement to provide an ongoing stream of funding to support urgent adaptation needs. It estimates at least $50 billion a year will be needed to help developing countries cope with the negative impacts of climate change.

"Ministers here in Poznan must step up to the challenge of forging an agreement on funding for adaptation. It is urgent, and the time is now," said Coates.

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