LONDON (Reuters) - The key to successful climate talks in Copenhagen next month will be making sure rich countries fund greener technologies in the developing world, Norway's prime minister said on Friday. Politicians have talked down expectations for the talks which are supposed to find a successor to the Kyoto treaty that expires in 2012, and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said it now seemed clear a full legal deal could not be reached.

But Copenhagen will be at least partly successful if a funding mechanism is established -- an element of the talks which is even more important than setting new greenhouse gas emissions targets for 2020, Stoltenberg said. ''I believe that the most important issue is the issue of financing,'' he told Reuters after addressing students at the London School of Economics.

''Norway has proposed a system of financing where we auction part of the global emission allowances and earmark those to developing countries."