Leaders of 65 countries set to attend Copenhagen summit

By Fiona Harvey in London
Published: November 23 2009 02:00 At least 65 world leaders have agreed to attend the Copenhagen summit on climate change in December, raising the stakes on a deal being reached and lending "critical mass" to the meeting, say senior officials.
The Danish government announced this weekend that leaders of most of the world's biggest economies were planning to attend, including the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Japan, Australia, Brazil and Indonesia. In total, 180 nations are expected at Copenhagen.
The talks aimed originally to bring together environment ministers, but as the deadline has begun to loom without agreement on important issues, the Danish government has stepped up efforts to bring in heads of state and government for the final day of the conference, on December 18.
Barack Obama, US president, has not guaranteed his presence, nor has Hu Jintao, Chinese president. The two countries are the world's biggest emitters and their absence from the talks could jeopardise a deal.
But a senior UK government official said yesterday that the number of leaders agreeing to attend had reached "critical mass", making it likely that others would also want to attend.
Intervention of world leaders is necessary, officials believe, to break some of the entrenched positions countries have occupied. The UK official said: "The presence of leaders does not guarantee success but it makes it harder to fail."
One sticking point is thatThe US has been unable to agree on its own emissions target.
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