*

COP30 Presidency had hoped to land first deal on Wednesday

*

Promised new deal text not published, now expected

Thursday

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Fossil fuel 'roadmap' plan gathers steam, but still

divisive

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Turkey wins race to host COP31 in compromise with

Australia

(Recasts throughout with Lula comments)

By Lisandra Paraguassu and Kate Abnett

BELEM, Brazil, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Brazil failed to land

an early COP30 climate deal on Wednesday, though President Luiz

Inacio Lula da Silva remained upbeat about the prospects of

progress in the last two days of the summit despite differences

between nations on key issues.

The Brazilian hosts of the two-week U.N. summit in the

Amazonian city of Belem had hoped to secure approval for a deal

covering some of the most divisive issues in the global climate

talks, including fossil fuels and climate finance.

Lula spent the day meeting delegations from key negotiating

blocs to hash out a deal.

"I am so happy that I leave here certain that my

negotiators will have the best result a COP could have ever

offered to the Planet Earth," he told reporters after the

meetings, referring to the acronym for the climate meetings

known formally as the Conference of the Parties.

Brazil had hoped to buck the trend in which recent

climate summits ran well past deadline, but a promised revised

deal text did not materialise on Wednesday and was now not

expected until Thursday.

RIFTS REMAIN OVER ISSUES

The summit has brought nearly 200 countries together to try

to ratchet up multilateral action to limit climate change,

despite the absence of the United States, the top historic

greenhouse gas emitter.

But rifts on key issues remain, posing a fresh test of

international will to slow global warming.

A central issue in the COP30 talks is whether countries will

agree to develop a "roadmap" setting out how the world will

transition away from fossil fuels. Burning coal, oil and natural

gas is the main source of the emissions heating the planet.

The COP28 climate summit in 2023 agreed to this

transition, but nations have not mapped out how - or when - it

will happen.

Dozens of countries including Germany, Kenya and Britain

have rallied behind a deal for a roadmap away from fossil fuels

- but as of Wednesday, less than half of countries at the summit

had publicly backed this idea.

To bring more countries on board with the idea, the

European Union submitted a proposal late on Wednesday.

The proposal, reviewed by Reuters, said countries would

offer a roadmap to manage the shift from fossil fuels guided by

the best available science on climate change, but in a

"non-prescriptive" way - meaning it would not impose specific

obligations on individual countries.

'WE'VE GOT BLOCKERS,' VANUATU SAYS

Still, not every nation is on board with the transition

roadmap concept.

Ralph Regenvanu, the climate minister for the Pacific island

nation of Vanuatu, whose people have been impacted by rising sea

levels it attributes to climate change, told Reuters Saudi

Arabia was one of those opposed to plans to transition away from

fossil fuels.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, did not

respond to requests for comment.

"I think it's going to be very difficult ... because we've

got blockers," Regenvanu said.

Other island nations said the issue was vital.

"We're going to have to fight tooth and nail. There are

many parties who have already said that they do not want that in

the text at all," Tina Stege, the Marshall Islands climate

envoy, told Reuters.

Other contentious issues in the package include pinning down

how rich countries will provide financing to poorer countries to

switch to clean energy, and what must be done about a gap

between promised emissions cuts and those needed to stop

temperatures rising.

One diplomatic standoff that had been hanging over the

conference was nearly resolved on Wednesday.

Turkey and Australia drew close to striking a deal under

which

Turkey will host

next year's COP31 event, while Australia will lead the

conference's negotiations among governments, Australian Prime

Minister Anthony Albanese said.

(Additional reporting by Simon Jessop, Sudarshan Varadhan;

writing by Richard Valdmanis and William James; editing by

Alison Williams, David Gregorio and Christian Schmollinger)