Brussels - The European Union is fiddling while the world's climate burns, South African Nobel Peace prize winner Desmond Tutu said in a strongly-worded open letter Thursday as EU leaders opened a summit in Brussels.

"Around the world, hope of a fair and ambitious climate-change deal in Copenhagen (in December) is receding (...) The EU, previously progressive champions for action on climate change, is paralysed by the unseemly bickering amongst its member states over who will pay the bill," Tutu, the former archbishop of Cape Town, wrote.

Tutu has emerged as a key spokesman for the world's poor nations on climate change, his status as a Nobel laureate giving him moral clout in Western eyes.

Tutu's attack came as EU leaders were arriving in Brussels for a summit dedicated to the question of how to fund the fight against climate change in poorer regions of the world.

The EU is deadlocked between rich Western and poor Eastern member states over how much each one should pay.

Tutu singled out Germany's newly re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel, saying that the voters who backed her "have a right to expect that she will fulfil her promises, not just to them but to the vulnerable countries that are desperately waiting for the money that could mean the difference between life and death."

And he launched a fierce attack on Poland's premier, Donald Tusk, whose country is seen by some in Europe as the main opponent to an internal deal on climate change funding.

Tusk "is trying to reduce the amount of money the EU commits to the developing world (...) Poland also has a responsibility to provide assistance to other parts of the world," as the rest of the world backed Poland's fight against Communist rule, Tutu wrote.

Sweden, current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, Thursday proposed a compromise which would see Eastern member states approve an EU deal on climate funding in return for a rebate if their contribution ever became too large. (dpa)