Developing countries at a United Nations conference in Bangkok said Tuesday they won't sign a global warming pact unless industrialized nations guarantee them billions of dollars needed to adapt to the impact of climate change.

Island nations in the Caribbean and South Pacific recounted how they are being hit by worsening floods, rising seas and cyclones linked to climate change and don't have the money to build sea walls or relocate threatened villages.

"Adaptation is critical to our very survival," said Selwin Hart, a delegate from Barbados who was speaking for the Alliance of Small Island States. "If a deal on adaptation is not part of this agreement, we have no incentive to be part of it."

Rich countries insist they are willing to help, but disagree over how to provide assistance — whether it should be voluntary aid favoured by the United States or a European proposal to use the trading of pollution permits to generate funds.

The weeklong conference of representatives from 163 countries launched a 21-month process Monday aimed at concluding a new climate change agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, to rein in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for the rise in world temperatures.

Along with financing, countries are expected to wrangle over how best to reduce emissions in a new agreement.

The EU has proposed that industrialized countries slash emissions by 25 per cent to 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. The U.S., which is one of the world's top polluters, has repeatedly rejected mandatory national reduction targets of the kind agreed to under the Kyoto Protocol a decade ago.

Japan, which is struggling to meet its emissions-cutting commitment under the Kyoto pact, is backing industry-based emission caps, which is seen as a bid to reduce its obligations in a future agreement.

Money a sticking point

The subject of assistance to impoverished countries almost derailed December talks in Bali at which world governments agreed to launch the current negotiations. Many poor nations argued that industrialized countries should take the first step in both reducing emissions and helping developing countries cope with rising temperatures.

Once that occurs, the developing countries agreed for the first time to take verifiable actions on their own to control greenhouse gases.

Financing dominated the climate talks in the first two days. John Ashe, chairman of the Group of 77 and China, a coalition of developing countries, said members of the group complained they cannot use their scarce resources to reduce greenhouse gases if their most urgent needs in adapting to global warming aren't met.

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is hosting the Thailand meeting, said it is essential to figure out what the industrialized world is willing to pay to help out poorer countries.

"There is not going to be an international agreement … without clarity on what resources will be on the table to help developing countries to limit their emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change," he said.

Only up to $300 million US annually will be available through a UN adaptation fund created in Bali, with a maximum of $1.5 billion US a year projected if a climate agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol is approved.

That is much less than the nearly $86 billion US the UN development program estimates is needed annually by 2015.

China called in Bangkok for developed countries to provide at least 0.5 per cent of their gross domestic product annually to help poorer nations adapt.

In the United States, that would exceed $60 billion US.

Many European nations led by Germany have suggested closing the funding gap by using a percentage of money generated from the trading of carbon credits — permits for companies to emit carbon pollutants. Others have suggested a tax on aviation or maritime fuels could be used to finance adaptation measures.