Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Wednesday that reaching a global agreement on climate change would be tough, requiring action from both developed and developing nations.

Rudd met climate change guru and former U.S. vice President Al Gore in Sydney to discuss progress ahead of the Copenhagen talks.

"This is going to be a very rough and bumpy road, there are many obstacles in the way," Rudd told reporters after their meeting.

"As I said recently in L'Aquila at the G8 plus meeting in Italy, our negotiators worldwide are going to need fresh political momentum, a fresh mandate in order to land an outcome in Copenhagen," he said.

"We're going to need action from developed countries, we're going to need action from developing countries and we're going to need, of course, someone working out the basis of an appropriate deal for the major economies of the world to get a decent outcome for the planet."

Rudd revealed he and Gore had also discussed the Australian approach to battling climate change, including the carbon pollution reduction scheme.

He said there needed be certainty for business and regime that allows Australia to contribute to the global fight against climate change.

Gore warned that Australia was vulnerable to climate change.

"Australia is in the line of fire where the climate crisis is concerned," Gore said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2009)