COPENHAGEN - The Kyoto Protocol which binds nearly 40 rich nations to limit carbon emissions is in intensive care and global negotiations to extend the pact have stalled, Environment Minister Jairam Rameshsaid on Wednesday.

More than 190 countries are meeting in Copenhagen to agree the outlines of a new global deal to combat climate change, hoping to seal a full treaty next year to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

Developing countries want rich nations to be held to their Kyoto obligations, and sign up to a second round of tougher commitments from 2013.

But Jairam Ramesh said many developed countries were vehemently opposing the protocol and some of them wanted a single new accord obliging all nations to fight global warming.

The sense we get is that Kyoto (Protocol) is in intensive care if not dead, Ramesh told reporters.

(krittivas.mukherjee@reuters.com; krittivas.mukherjee.reuters.com°reuters.net)

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