An early draft of the document was leaked to Greenpeace last week, embellished with notes penned by an unnamed US negotiator who expressed serious concerns regarding two of the draft’s five points.

Although most parties heading to Heiligendamm, Germany next month for the talks are broadly in agreement with three of the communiqué’s sections, the first two points – which refer to the setting of a stabilisation goal that would commit signatories to a global temperature rise of no more than two degrees and the founding of a global carbon trading market – have proved a little more contentious.

The scrawled comments on the leaked early copy of the draft read: ‘The treatment of climate change runs counter to our overall position and crosses multiple “red lines” in terms of what we simply cannot agree to.’

However, a source close to the talks told The Observer yesterday that the US position appears to be shifting since the notes were written.

“George Bush has said he wants to be part of the solution,” said another source. “They are not sitting in their armchair on the side but in the trenches fighting for their position… It is not impossible to see the US agreeing to all five points.”

The points of the communiqué that have so far enjoyed overall approval cover the development of new technologies, measures to help countries adapt to climate change and new methods to fight deforestation.

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