EU urged to save Kyoto climate pact; Japan says "No"

* Poor nations want European Union to preserve Kyoto accord

* Japan insists will not agree new round of Kyoto Protocol

* Some delegates see glimmers of hope at U.N. talks

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

BONN, Germany, June 16 (Reuters) - Poor nations pressed the European Union at U.N. climate talks on Thursday to salvage the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol for cutting greenhouse gas emissions as Japan reiterated opposition to an extension beyond 2012.

The 180-nation two-week talks, due to end on Friday, have made scant progress towards ending long-standing deadlock about how to share out curbs on greenhouse gases among rich and poor to slow global warming. Some delegates saw glimmers of hope.

"There are some encouraging signs," said Alf Wills, of South Africa, whose country will host the next annual U.N. climate negotiations in Durban in November and December, of discussions about ways of saving Kyoto. The EU is Kyoto's main backer.

Delegates say developing nations, most at risk from the effects of climate change, are trying to push all rich countries -- especially the EU -- to sign up for an extension of Kyoto, which now obliges almost 40 industrialised nations to cut emissions by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels during 2008-12.