As British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged his peers not to abandon their goals in the face of the growing pressures from financial woes, Poland's foreign minister said he would resist attempts to railroad the treaty through.

"This is a very intricate game and Poland is ready to introduce a veto if there will be attempts to force us to achieve an agreement on the climate package," Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters at an EU summit in Brussels.

Sikorski however insisted Warsaw did not want to kill the whole package which is meant to be approved by December.

"Poland will veto, not the entire package, but part of the technical details," he added.

Last year, EU leaders vowed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. They also pledged to have renewable energies make up 20 percent of total energy sources.

But many EU nations have begun to baulk at the costs involved and the consequences to industry of the climate change goals.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk led a pre-summit meeting of eastern European leaders who called on their EU partners to "respect the differences in member states' economic potential," in fixing national goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In a statement released just ahead of the full summit, leaders of the three Baltic states, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia as well as Poland stressed "the Union's climate and energy policy should reconcile environmental objectives and the need for sustainable economic growth."

Another Polish official insisted the desirability of the targets was not in doubt.

"Poland is not against the Commission's (climate) package -- we support it. We oppose the forcing of a deadline on when the package must be agreed," he said on condition of anonymity.

The call for special attention to be paid to economic concerns in finalising the climate package, is just what Brussels and other EU member states had feared as the financial crisis takes hold.

"This is not the time to abandon a climate change agenda which is important for the future," Brown told reporters in Brussels.

"The climate change agenda is part of the solution for many of the problems we face as a global economy," noting that high oil prices and less energy security "makes it more important that we deal with a long-term policy."

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, after talks with Brown, also urged the leaders to press ahead and not abandon Europe's leadership role.

"If we now give any signal that we are not really committed to doing it, others will not have the incentive to do it," he added.

In a draft of conclusions to be released at the end of the summit, the leaders were set to express their "determination" to honour the climate change goals, whose "balance and fundamental parameters" must be respected.

They would also underline their commitment to improving the security of energy supplies in Europe.

No final decision on the climate package, to be discussed over a working dinner in Brussels, was expected Wednesday but the European Commission remains hopeful that it could seal a deal in December.

A European diplomat said the overall goals had not been challenged but that concessions would have to be made to eastern European countries finding it tough to make emission cuts due to a reliance on coal-fired power stations.

For example Poland, dependent on coal-fired power plants for 96 percent of its electricity, is calling on Brussels to increase its carbon dioxide emissions cap for its energy utilities.

Both Poland and Germany are also seeking to ease plans to start auctioning emissions quotas for industry from 2013.

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