By Gerard Wynn BONN, May 18 (Reuters) - Deadlock over how to bring the United States and big developing nations to the climate negotiating table frustrated U.N.-hosted talks this week, meant to lay the groundwork for a conference in Indonesia in December. The talks among 166 nations conclude on Friday, three weeks before a G8 summit where global warming will feature. Despite recent U.N. reports ringing alarm bells on global warming, pessimism has mounted over the prospects of launching formal talks to extend the Kyoto Protocol on the reduction of carbon emissions beyond 2012 at the Bali conference. The United States has refused to ratify Kyoto, while rapidly developing nations like China and India were not set targets. Countries that accepted emissions caps such as Japan want everyone involved next time round. "You need all major emitters to join in, including India, China and the United States," said Japan's chief climate negotiator, Mutsuyoshi Nishimura. "I'm really, really pessimistic that those conditions are going to be met. I have low expectations of kicking off negotiations in Bali." However South Africa, which does not yet face targets, was optimistic -- "There's an opportunity to shift a gear in Bali," said the head of the delegation Alf Wills. "South Africa has said this week we must find a way of translating dialogue into negotiations on further commitments for both developed and developing countries." Policymakers, green groups and business leaders are already fretting about what happens after present Kyoto Protocol emissions targets expire. Nations have to agree new commitments and win parliamentary backing for them, a process seen taking at least four years. DEVELOPING COUNTRY DEMANDS One stumbling block is that developing nations do not want to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, which may brake their economic growth, until rich nations which have benefited from years of burning fossil fuels do more. "Villages that don't have power will never get power and those that do will have power cuts," said the head of one influential developing country delegation, declining to be named. "Why should I cut? I didn't create the problem." Meanwhile the United States ruled out talks in Bali to change the Kyoto Protocol's parent treaty, the Convention on Climate Change, a step to amend Kyoto rules. "Certainly it would be premature," chief U.S. negotiator Harlan Watson told Reuters. Some developing countries also wanted more progress on funds to adapt to climate change already happening, and on discounts on clean energy technologies. "We've been talking about it for 10 years, where is it?" said the major developing nation delegate. South Africa's Wills pointed to agreement at the Bonn meeting, to be signed off in Bali, that an adaptation fund would be made available for most vulnerable countries, and agreement to set up a group to oversee technology transfer. Other delegates said a series of reports this year by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had focused minds on the need to act fast. "Everybody knows there's a higher public expectation on policymakers," said the head of the European Commission's delegation, Artur Runge-Metzger. "The results of the IPCC reports are creeping into delegates' minds.
