Responding to whether India was caught off guard by China's setting conditions for accepting legally binding cuts after 2020, Environment Minister Natarajan remained vague about New Delhi's concerns.

"India does not have a closed mind," she told reporters, adding that and she would continue to push the country's three-point agenda of equity, technology and intellectual property rights as well as unilateral trade barriers.

China said that it will sign up to a legally binding carbon emission cuts after 2020 on the condition that the developed world should do it part to bring down greenhouse gas emissions in this decade--and these efforts should be effective in controlling the problem.

She also rubbished claims that India was being a spoiler.

"I don't perceive this as a correct perspective," Natarjan said, adding "Our development imperative is important".

Natarajan today met top negotiators from the United States, European Union and the alliance of emerging economies called BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China).

"We are very optimistic that we will understand each others positions," she said.

Developments over the past week, however, indicate deep divisions between developed and developing nations that are yet to be bridged.

In 2005, developed countries promised to transfer complex technologies to developing countries free of cost to cope up with climate change.

But in 2009 at Copenhagen, they failed to commit to such transfers citing the problematic intellectual property rights regime.

Runge-Metzger also noted that the discussion on IPR had been carried out for more than a decade but no solution had been reached.

The European diplomat reiterated the continent's position that trade discussion should be taken up under the WTO and not the UN framework (UNFCCC).

"Is the UNFCCC to do the work of the WTO?" he asked.

"Is the intention of India to duplicate the work?" he asked to stress on the point.