BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Countries most vulnerable to climate change said today they were incensed that rich nations were rethinking the timetable for concluding a global treaty that would hold them to legally binding targets for cutting emissions. As delegates engaged in a fifth and final day of U.N. climate talks in Spain, European nations downplayed expectations for a legal treaty to come out of next month’s key climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Instead, negotiators were working to hammer out a draft political agreement in which rich nations would make hard pledges to reduce emissions and to finance aid for helping theworld’s poorest cope with the affects of Earth’s rising temperatures.

Such a deal would carry the authority of world leaders who would come to Copenhagen to sign off on it. Nations would agree to stick to their promises while they continue negotiating the details of a treaty, taking as long as another year.

The shift — an implicit admission of defeat after two years of tough U.N. negotiations — follows acknowledgment that several countries, including the United States, may not be politically ready to sign a legal pact by next month.

“After Copenhagen, talking action must turn into takingaction,” said Yvo De Boer, the U.N. official who is shepherding the talks.

The head of the Indian delegation, ShyamSaran,saidthekey to success at Copenhagen would be “the willingness of (industrial nations) to come up with significant reduction targets,” and that a consensus by all 192 nations would still be binding.

“We don’t share view that it is no longer possible. If it were no longer possible, we would rather pack up and go home,” Saran said.

Antonio Hill of British charity Oxfam was also upbeat, saying it was “essential” that a deal in some form be done in Copenhagen.