20091216

PARIS (Reuters) - European leaders are courting some African, Asian and Latin American nations to counter the clout of China and the United States at the climate change talks in Copenhagen, French officials said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his EU allies were wary of letting Beijing present itself as a spokesman for emerging economies, they said. This would be based on China's ties with the G77 bloc of developing nations which is chaired by Sudan, an ally of Beijing.

"We have Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia with us. What we need is to rally the 51 African countries, all the little islands, the vulnerable countries, Bangladesh, and India if possible," said a Sarkozy adviser, who did not wish to be named.

Sarkozy has pushed his climate agenda during talks with leaders from Ethiopia, Egypt and Indonesia this week, and was meeting heads from the 1l countries in the Congo basin, the world's second-biggest forest after the Amazon, on Wednesday.

The leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain, Denmark and Sweden agreed on a joint diplomatic charm offensive on the fringes of a European Union summit last week, they said.

"They divvied up the phone calls. It's obvious for example that to talk to Argentina and Chile, (Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez) Zapatero is better placed," an aide told Reuters.

After a working lunch with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Tuesday, Sarkozy said Africa and the EU were "on the same political line" in terms of targets for cutting carbon emissions -- one of the sticking points in Copenhagen.

Meles, who is representing Africa at the talks, was slightly less upbeat, speaking of "near-total agreement".