The group, which will be open to all 192 countries of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), will present its decisions on the launch of negotiations on a post-2012 climate change regime to the ministers who will meet during the second week of the conference. The current regime, called the Kyoto Protocol, expires that year.

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said the establishment of the group was an "encouraging signal" which puts in motion a mechanism to reach an agreement in Bali.

At the same time, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon published a major op-ed in the Washington Post. "We have read the science," he began. "Global warming is real, and we are a prime cause."

Conference leaders have cautioned, though, that while Bali should launch the negotiations, it would not deliver a fully-negotiated deal.

"While the launch of negotiations and a clear deadline of 2009 to end the negotiations would constitute a breakthrough, anything short of that would constitute a failure," said Indonesian Environment Minister and President of the Conference Rachmat Witoelar.

"It is critical that we act and we act now," he said. "It is imperative to start the process in Bali. We need to send a strong statement to the international community that we at the Bali negotiations can act with the requisite sense of urgency and import."

The conference is expected to launch negotiations that would likely take two years to conclude. But while Bali is expected to frame the negotiations that will lead to an agreement, many of the most contentious issues are likely to be considered much later in the negotiating process.

Mr. de Boer said public expectations for Bali to provide answers are high. "The eyes of the world," he told negotiators, "are now upon you. There is a huge responsibility for Bali to deliver."

And while fossil fuels will continue to be the main drivers of growth, Mr. de Boer said developing countries could avoid the same mistakes as developed countries through greater cooperation, technology and incentives.

Countries agreed on Tuesday on a mechanism that could speed the transfer of technology that developing countries consider essential for addressing climate change. While the issue has been considered in the past in talks under the Climate Change treaty, states will now discuss concrete concerns on how to make it happen.

The decision came as concerns were raised by developing countries that attention in Bali was too focused on a future agreement that would enter into force in 2013, while previous commitments to assist developing countries under the existing Convention and Protocol had been largely forgotten.