Talks designed to pave the way for a comprehensive climate deal in Copenhagen this year ended on Friday with little progress and the gap between developing and industrialised nations seemingly no closer to being bridged.

The meeting in the Thai capital, Bangkok, started two weeks ago with a plea from Connie Hedegaard, the Danish climate minister and host of the Copenhagen meeting in December, for participants to abandon “old patterns of disagreement”. But the 1,500 delegates closed the meeting with no breakthroughs.