Paris--Sarkozy told Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, president of the Nobel prize-winning UN panel of climate experts, that the "challenge of a world agreement on climate change must be met," a statement from his office said.

The French leader said the Group of Eight summit in Italy in July and a UN climate summit in September were key moments that would determine prospects for a deal at the Copenhagen meeting.

Six months before the landmark conference in the Danish capital, negotiators wrapped up talks in Bonn last week hinting that there had been no progress on the core issue of how to share the burden of future emissions cuts.

Following the meeting at the Elysee palace, Pachauri said the French president was committed to pursuing a green agenda and "really wants to do something in this area."

"He would like to see that Copenhagen is a success and he is going to work with the others leaders to do that," said Pachauri, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

In March 2007, the IPCC issued a stark warning that global warming, if unchecked, would lead to a devastating amalgam of floods, drought, disease and extreme weather by the century end.

AFP/ Expatica