(Adds Polish finance minister, paragraph 16) By Karolina Slowikowska WARSAW, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The leaders of Germany and Poland said on Tuesday they believed the European Union would reach a compromise at a Dec. 11-12 summit over climate change plans that some member states consider too demanding. Poland and other poorer ex-communist EU member states are worried that the plan to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 will damage their economies, especially at a time of global financial crisis. Germany, the EU's largest economy and industrial powerhouse, wants to blunt the package's impact on the ability of its carmakers and other manufacturers to compete in global markets. "In this area (climate change) we made a big step forward. We can now allow ourselves some cautious optimism (on the summit outcome)," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a joint news conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Asked if Germany or Poland might veto the package, she said: "The probability of such a veto is now smaller." Tusk, who has in the past threatened a Polish veto of the plans, said he was more hopeful after his talks with Merkel. "I would say we have made another step towards reaching an agreement that would be good for everybody, not just for a chosen group of countries," he said, describing a veto as "a dramatic solution" best avoided. Tusk's government is opposed to European Commission plans to make power stations buy permits to pollute from 2013. Warsaw fears this would ramp up costs for its power sector, which is about 95 percent reliant on highly polluting coal. Tusk wants more time to prepare for the carbon caps. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, holder of the EU's rotating presidency, is determined to clinch a climate deal at the summit despite failing to persuade Tusk to back compromise proposals at weekend talks in the Polish Baltic city of Gdansk. SYMPATHY Merkel expressed some sympathy for Poland's position. "Poland wants to push back the auctioning process and that is understandable, given that Poland has a long way to go before replacing its coal-fired power plants, but obviously we need to talk about the details here," she said. Germany, along with Italy, wants large swathes of industry facing higher costs and tough international competition to be 80-100 percent exempt from buying emissions permits from the EU's flagship Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). About 10 percent of ETS revenues have been earmarked for a 7.5 billion euro "solidarity fund" to compensate Poland and other ex-communist states for the heavy cost of overhauling their power stations. Any exemptions for West European industry would reduce the portion available to poorer nations. Germany and Britain are resisting Polish calls for the solidarity fund to be topped up. Polish Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski told a separate news conference on Tuesday: "As far as Poland is concerned, we can't find ourselves in a position where the poorest EU members share the largest burden." Nearly a dozen ministers accompanied Merkel on her one-day visit to Warsaw, underlining a big improvement in bilateral ties since Tusk replaced the nationalist-minded Jaroslaw Kaczynski as prime minister last year. Merkel said she and Tusk had also discussed how to mark next year's 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland which sparked World War Two. "I think that on both sides we are ready to take up the issue of our shared history so that we can look together into the future," she added. (Writing by Gareth Jones, editing by Tim Pearce)
A destroyed bulldozer is seen at a burned area in the forest at the coastal town of Laguna Verde, some 115 km (71 miles) northwest of Santiago, in this March 6, ...
