By Pete Harrison
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - A group of 26 influential world leaders had constructive talks overnight on how to unblock climate negotiations on the last day of a summit in Copenhagen, the talks' host said on Friday.
"We discussed how we can make progress, and we had a very fruitful, constructive dialogue ... for almost two hours," Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters.
Rasmussen called the late-night talks to overcome the main obstacles and work on a short political declaration in the hope of salvaging climate talks that had become bogged down in a turgid and technical 60-page text.
After the leaders left, their aides worked on drafting a political agreement for them to inspect later.
"We will meet again in the leaders' group at 8 o'clock," said Rasmussen.
After days of stalemate, the United States helped revive the 193-nation talks on Thursday by backing a $100 billion climate fund to help poor nations adapt their economies and tackle threats such as failing crops and dwindling water supplies.
"Leaders are flying in, most have already arrived, and the reason they have decided to come to Copenhagen is because there is a genuine feeling to achieve something important," said Rasmussen.
Swedish President Fredrik Reinfeldt said the discussions had centred on lowering climate-warming emissions and ways of delivering long-term and short-term funding to help poor countries tackle the problem.
"We haven't reached any agreement," Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said as he left.
"We're working on it," said lead U.S. negotiator Todd Stern.
Elsewhere in the building, environment ministers were trying to resolve other issues involving funding, carbon markets and emissions cuts by industrialized nations.
Oil-producing states including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Sudan and Algeria had tried to block a separate late-night meeting, one minister said.
It later convened but swiftly fell into disarray as G77 developing nations left to coordinate their stance, another source in the meeting said.
(Editing by Ralph Gowling)
