U.N. climate talks resumed on Monday exposing familiar rifts between rich and poor nations which delegates said would delay the start of formal negotiations.
The 185-nation Bonn conference, which runs until June 11, is the biggest international climate meeting since a summit last December in Copenhagen failed to agree on a new deal to combat global warming, succeeding the Kyoto Protocol after 2012.
The Copenhagen summit last December struggled to overcome suspicions on sharing a global effort to curb greenhouse gases.
Differences resurfaced on Monday when Latin American countries, the United States and South Africa said they could not launch negotiations on the basis of a text published in mid-May, which outlines a huge range of options for fighting climate change.
"Our view is that the text is (an) effort to elicit views so she can develop a formal negotiating text," said Jonathan Pershing, head of the U.S. delegation, referring to the chair of the talks, Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe of Zimbabwe.
"It's a constructive next step."
Chief South African delegate Alf Wills said the document put too much burden on developing nations, devoting a whole chapter to emissions curbs by the South but not the North. "It's completely unbalanced in that respect," he said.
However Karsten Sach, leader of Germany's delegation, said: "We think it is a basis for negotiation."
Zimbabwe's Mukahanana-Sangarwe is expected to publish a revised version by Saturday, delegates said.
It remained to be seen whether negotiations could start on that revised text next week, Pershing told Reuters. South Africa's Wills said formal talks may have to wait until August.
