BRUSSELS - Britain will contribute along with France at least 1.5 billion pounds ($2.44 billion) to climate finance funding for 2010-2012, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday.

Our contribution will be at least 1.5 billion pounds over the three years and we also believe that Europe will be able to show today it will pay its share of the $10 billion fund, Brown said at a joint news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at an EU leaders' summit in Brussels.

The EU leaders are hoping to agree on financing for developing countries to tackle global warming in the three years before any deal agreed at international talks in Copenhagen takes effect.

One EU source said member states had pledged a total of 1.8 billion euros ($2.65 billion) annually to help the developing countries during the three-year period, and another said that total was likely to reach up to 2.1 billion annually.

Brown said he expected the combined EU figure to be in excess of 2 billion euros by the end of the summit.

(Reporting by Luke Baker, editing by Mike Peacock)

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