Emissions in 2007 by 40 industrialised countries with reporting obligations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) were around four percent below 1990 levels, the Bonn-based UN Climate Change Secretariat said.

But over the period 2000-2007, they rose three percent.

"The continuing growth of emissions from industrialised countries remains worrying, despite the expectation of a momentary dip brought about by the global recession," UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said.

"So the numbers for 2007 underscore, once again, the urgent need to seal a comprehensive, fair and effective climate change deal in Copenhagen in December," he added.

For the 37 countries with targets under the Kyoto Protocol, 2007 emissions were almost the same as in 2006 -- down 0.1 percent -- and around 16 percent below the 1990 Kyoto baseline for industrialised countries with targets.

However, much of this was from the economic decline of countries in central and eastern Europe since the fall of communism two decades ago, and since 2000 emissions from these countries have grown three percent, the agency said.

More than 190 countries will converge on the Danish capital in December to try to hammer out a treaty to tackle global warming that will succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Developed nations have pushed emerging giants such as China and India, which had no obligations under Kyoto, to commit to some sort of binding action on reducing emissions.

But China and India and other developing nations have repeatedly balked at the request, saying industralised nations should bear the brunt of the responsibility.

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