France24.com: Sarkozy and Merkel begin carbon emissions summit in Straubing

Let's hope this one-day summit goes well, although it seems like there's a lot to be worked out.

Berlin conceded ahead of the meeting in the baroque southern city of Straubing that there was no hope at this point of resolving a protracted row over European plans to reduce carbon emissions from cars.

The European Union wants to impose a carbon emissions limit of 120 grammes per kilometre on all new EU cars by 2012 as part of efforts to fight climate change.

Merkel's government strongly oppose the plans as vehicles made by cornerstone German firms like BMW, Daimler and Porsche tend to be larger, luxury vehicles with greater emissions.

France however backs the legislation as leading French carmakers such as Peugeot and Renault tend to build smaller cars that pollute less.