COPENHAGEN - Developing nations at the UN climate conference rejected as "insignificant" on Friday an EU pledge of 7.2 billion euros ($10.6 billion) to help them tackle global warming.

EU leaders agreed the funding -- to be paid out over three years -- at a summit in Brussels a full week before 110 heads of state and government convene in Copenhagen for the finale of the 12-day conference.

"The fact that Europe is going to put a figure on the table will, I think, be hugely encouraging to the process," said UN climate chief Yvo de Boer. "We will then have to see what other rich countries are going to put on the table."

Every one of the 27 EU member states will contribute, with Britain giving up 1.2 billion pounds (1.3 billion euros, two billion dollars) -- despite its worse recession in decades.

But in Copenhagen, the Group of 77 developing nations -- actually a caucus of 130 states that includes China -- said the proposal fails to address the issue of setting up long-term financing mechanisms.

"I believe they are not only insignificant, they actually breed even more distrust on the intentions of European leaders on climate change," said Lumumba Stanislaus Dia-Ping of Sudan.

"Our view is that European leaders are acting as if they were climate skeptics," he said. "Fundamentally, they are saying this problem does not exist and therefore they are providing no finance whatsover."

Equally sceptical was Chinese vice foreign minister He Yafei. "It will be relatively easy for developed countries to come up with a number for the short term for three years," he said. "But what shall we do after three years?"

The EU proposal, and the backlash it generated, came as the first official draft of a potential Copenhagen agreement emerged -- only for the United States to reject a key section as "unbalanced".

Besides setting a target for limiting global warming, the seven-page blueprint calls for a second commitment period under the Kyoto protocol, which runs out in 2012 without ever having been ratified by the United States.

Typical of any summit document, it is pockmarked with figures and phrases within brackets -- the fine print that diplomats can spend hours and days haggling over in hopes of finding a compromise.

One key part reads: "Parties shall cooperate to avoid dangerous climate change, in keeping with the ultimate objective of the Convention, recognizing [the broad scientific view] that the increase in global average temperature above pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed [2 C] [1.5 C]."

The lower target is embraced by small island states and many African nations badly threatened by climate change, while the higher target has been supported by rich nations and emerging giants such as China, India and Brazil.

But while the draft is "constructive" in many ways, it fails to press the up-and-coming powers hard enough to slash their carbon output, chief US negotiator Todd Stern told reporters.

On that point, he added, the text is "unbalanced".

"If we are talking about the need to keep the temperature increase below 2.0 C (3.6 F) rise... you can't even have that discussion if the major developing countries are not taking a major role," Stern told reporters.

"The United States is not going to do a deal without major developing countries stepping up," he added.

The draft text also leaves open three possible targets for an overall reduction of global carbon emissions by 2020, compared with 1990 levels -- by 50 percent, by 80 percent and by 95 percent.

Industrialized countries favor the 50 percent goal, but major emerging economies led by China balk at any such target unless it is made clear that rich countries will assume the near totality of the burden.

On climate funding, the draft text is vague; it also fails to spell out a firm deadline for concluding a treaty that would be legally binding on the 194 nations that are parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Outside the meeting hall, Danish police beefed up security ahead of a major demonstration on Saturday -- organized by 515 groups from 67 nations -- that is expected to draw tens of thousands of protesters.

"We know from experience that some destructive elements will infiltrate the demonstration," Copenhagen police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch told AFP.

Sixty-eight Danes and foreigners were taken into custody on Friday "as a preventive measure" on suspicion they might try to break the law, police said.

In the first protest since the conference began on Monday, around 500 young people joined an unauthorized march through Copenhagen on Friday to denounce the role of global corporations at the talks.