China has attacked the British government after climate change minister Ed Miliband accused Beijing of "hijacking" the United Nations-sponsored summit in Copenhagen.
Mr Miliband had singled out China as the culprit behind the near collapse of the climate talks, in a newspaper article.
But Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the piece seemed designed to sow discord among developing nations and was baseless and politically motivated.
She said the comments by an individual British politician - not mentioning Mr Miliband by name - were an attempt to "shirk the obligations of developed countries to their developing counterparts and foment discord among developing countries, but the attempt was doomed to fail".
Mr Miliband wrote in the Guardian that most countries, developed and developing, supported binding cuts in emissions, but that "some leading developing countries currently refuse to countenance this".
"We did not get an agreement on 50 per cent reductions in global emissions by 2050 or on 80 per cent reductions by developed countries. Both were vetoed by China, despite the support of a coalition of developed and the vast majority of developing countries," he wrote.
"We cannot again allow negotiations on real points of substance to be hijacked in this way."
Ms Jiang said those responsible for the editorial should "correct their mistakes, fulfil their obligations to developing countries in an earnest way, and stay away from activities that hinder the international community's co-operation in coping with climate change".
The Copenhagen Accord emerged principally from US president Barack Obama's meeting with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and the leaders of India, Brazil and South Africa. But several nations demanded deeper emissions cuts by the industrialised world.
Yesterday, Mr Wen praised the outcome of the talks and China's role in achieving it. He told the official Xinhua News Agency that China "played an important and constructive role in pushing the Copenhagen climate talks to earn the current results, and demonstrated its utmost sincerity and made its best effort".
PA