The US and Germany will make one last attempt at drafting a joint position on climate change and preventing tensions over the issue spiralling into a diplomatic row ahead of the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations' summit next week.

Bernd Pfaffenbach, Chancellor Angela Merkel's G8 envoy, or sherpa, and David McCormick, his US counterpart, are to meet in Berlin days before the summit in a last-ditch move to agree on a climate communiqué.