* EU finance ministers fail to agree climate funding offer * Decision goes to EU heads of state at meeting next week * Eastern states want early funding to be voluntary (Adds details, Greenpeace and Rostowski quotes By Pete Harrison and Marcin Grajewski LUXEMBOURG, Oct 20 (Reuters) - A rift between countries in the east and west of the European Union derailed the bloc's efforts on Tuesday to agree on funding to clinch a deal to combat climate change at talks in Copenhagen this year. Nine of Europe's poorer countries, led by Poland, demanded their own economic situation be taken into account before the EU agrees up to 15 billion euros ($22.5 billion) of financial aid for the developing world. "Today's EU fiasco has made the chance of failure in Copenhagen very real," Greenpeace campaigner Joris den Blanken said after EU finance ministers failed to reach agreement at talks in Luxembourg. "Instead of laying the foundations of a global climate agreement, finance ministers have only brought the catastrophic effects of climate change one step closer." Finance for developing countries is a sticking point in the run-up to the climate talks in the Danish capital in December on finding a replacement to the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations' main tool against climate change. It expires in 2012. "We have not been able to reach a conclusion," said Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg, whose country will play a lead role in the negotiations as EU president until the end of the year. "It is a disappointing outcome. At the end of the day, the issue will have to be dealt with at the European Council at the end of October," he said, referring to an EU summit in Brussels on Oct 29-30. WATER SOURCES Developing countries say they cannot cut emissions and adapt to changing temperatures without help from industrialised nations, which grew rich by fuelling their industries with hydrocarbons and polluting the atmosphere. They will also need money to develop drought-resistant crops and seek out new sources of water. But Europe's poorer nations say there is not much difference between the gross domestic product of Romania, for example, and that of Beijing. "If we say it is right for the first world to help the third world fight climate change, then we cannot expect the poorer countries of the EU to be the ones who are disproportionately helping the poorest countries in the third world," Polish Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski told reporters. "The richest countries in the EU should understand that the poorer countries expect this question of burden sharing to be resolved before Copenhagen," he added. The EU's executive, the European Commission, suggested last month the 27-country bloc should provide up to 15 billion euros a year by 2020 to break the impasse in global talks. To prove they are sincere in their efforts, rich nations should also provide 5 to 7 billion euros a year of "fast-track funding" in the three years before the Copenhagen deal takes effect, the Commission said. But a proposal put forward by the nine eastern European states suggested those early funds for developing nations were allocated "on a voluntary basis". The countries were Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Slovenia and the Czech Republic. Other countries questioned the wisdom of showing the EU's negotiating hand so early. "I warned, from the German side, against putting complete figures on the table too early," Deputy Finance Minister Joerg Asmussen told reporters. (Additional reporting by Brian Rohan, Tamora Vidaillet and Marcin Grajewski, writing by Pete Harrison, editing by Timothy Heritage)
Russian crew members (R) gather beside their MI 171 helicopter at the Villamor air base in Manila October 15, 2009, as they prepare to deliver boxes of relief goods to typhoon ...
