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Ethiopian Prime Minister and African Union climate negotiator Meles Zenawi downplayed Friday the chances of a deal to tackle global warming being struck at UN talks in Copenhagen.

"We know for sometime already that there won't be a binding treaty signed in Copenhagen....The question is not the treaty but if we'll have a binding political agreement," Meles told reporters in Addis Ababa.

He said it is important that global warming should not go beyond two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), but stressed the international community must agree upon ways to finance efforts to achieve that goal.

Africa has demanded billions of dollars in compensation from rich countries to cope with climate change. It contributes just four percent of the world's total greenhouse gases, yet it is the continent most ravaged by the effects of global warming.

"On emissions, lots of progress have been made. My primary worry now is not about the emissions, the main issue is the funding," Meles said, warning that failure in the Danish capital "will be primarily a failure for Africa."

According to a study by the UK-based Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, global warming could cost the continent around 30 billion dollars a year by 2015.

That figure could rise to between 50 billion and 100 billion dollars by 2020 due to increasing costs to cope with climate change effects such as frequent and more severe floods, droughts and storms, as well as extreme changes in rainfall patterns, the group said.

AFP Global Edition