BRUSSELS, 30 Oct. (Xinhua) -- European Union leaders agreed Friday that rich nations should pay 100 billion euros (147 billion U.S. dollars) a year from 2020 to help developing nations fight global warming, but they made no commitment on how much of that money would come from EU coffers.

    That failing, environmentalists say, undermines European claims to be leading the fight to limit climate change.

    The European leaders, however, claimed success at their summit, by embracing the concept of massive support for poorer nations to adapt their economies to low-carbon technologies. The EU also avoided a potentially damaging internal split that threatened to sabotage the bloc's position just 38 days ahead of the start of global climate change negotiations in Copenhagen.

    "The European Union now has a very strong negotiating position when the countdown to Copenhagen has started," said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who chaired the talks. "The EU still has the lead on climate change, let us hope others will follow."

    However, critics complain that global targets set by the EU are meaningless without the European bloc saying how much it will contribute. That, they say, undermines the chances of success in the Copenhagen talks, which run Dec. 7-18.

    "The EU failed to use this opportunity to put its money where its mouth is," said Greenpeace EU climate policy director Joris den Blanken. "The Copenhagen train is still running, but the world desperately needs some climate leadership to stop the wheels from jumping off the track."

    Greenpeace did praise the EU leaders for setting an overall annual target of 100 billion euro (147 billion dollars) to help the poorer countries cut greenhouse gas emissions.

    The leaders also said that 22-50 billion euro (32.3-74 billion dollars) of that should be public money from developed countries, with the rest coming from the private sector carbon market, or from the developing countries themselves.

    To kick start the process, they said fast track funding of 5-7 billion euro (9.4-10.3 billion dollars) should be made available from 2010-2012 to help less developed nations prepare for the switch to low-carbon economies. That money would come from "voluntary" contributions, rather than binding commitments.

    In the longer term, they set the target of reducing European emissions by at least 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050.

    What they failed to agree -- at least in public -- was how much of the money for developing nations will Europeans themselves be prepared to pay.

    Before they do that, the Europeans want indications on the scale of contributions from the Americans, Japanese, Australians and others. The Europeans limited themselves to saying they would pay their "fair share."

    The Swedes, who hold the EU presidency, had hoped for some firm figures, but others, led by Germany, said the EU should hold back from announcing its own contribution.

    EU officials likened the stance to a poker game, with Europe reluctant to show its hand until it sits around the table with the other main players. In fact, EU may not be hiding its cards well enough. Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel let slip that the Europeans would probably end up paying about one-third of the costs, a figure which has long been mentioned by European politicians.

    However, EU diplomats say wariness in committing to figures is a sound negotiating tactic. They remain confident that the international brinkmanship can still bring a deal in Copenhagen that will see developed nations pledging to cut their own emissions and agreeing to help the poorer economies to do likewise.

    "This is a breakthrough that takes us forward to Copenhagen and makes a Copenhagen agreement possible," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

    Indications of how the tactics play out will become clearer on Nov. 3 when the EU holds a summit meeting in Washington with U.S. President Barack Obama and at the last preparatory negotiations of international environment specialists in Barcelona next week.

    The European Union has long prided itself as a world leader in the fight against global warming. Central to its strategy is the so-called 20-20-20 commitment under which the 27-nation bloc has agreed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent of 1990 levels by 2020, and will increase that to 30 percent if others make comparable pledges in Copenhagen.

    The plan also commits the EU to ensuring that 20 percent of its energy comes from renewable sources and cutting overall energy consumption by 20 percent.

    When those targets were agreed in February last year, they were touted as a major breakthrough in the fight against climate change that showed Europe was leading the way. As the Europeans hoped, other nations have followed up with their own commitment to cut.

    Australia is looking to reduce emissions by up to 25 percent, Norway by up to 40 percent and Japan by 25 percent.

    The EU summit overcame an east-west divide within the European bloc as Poland led a revolt by poorer eastern European nations against a plan to make the biggest polluters pay most into any fund to help developing nations. In a compromise, the EU agreed to take into the account its member states financial situation in any calculation of their contributions.