Pacific must stand united: Tuvalu

Floodwaters from the storm surge in Tuvalu. File photo / Plan Australia

Tuvalu has issued a stern warning to its Pacific Island neighbours, urging countries not to do deals outside of the like-minded group at major climate talks in Paris.

Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga called for the small island developing states to band together and fight off "serious attempts" to drive a wedge between them.

The call highlights the tensions emerging between even the most tight-knit collections of countries in Paris after days of lengthy and slow negotiations.

The Prime Minister is upset he wasn't invited to a meeting between some Pacific Island nations, including Kiribati, and United States President Barack Obama earlier this week.

The US offered movement on risk insurance at the meeting as a compromise to finance commitments known as loss and damage.

Mr Sopoaga said he'd heard of deals being made outside the negotiations.

"There are serious efforts to want to drive a wedge to divide us," he said.

"This is dangerous and we must not allow that."

Loss and damage is a major sticking point at the UN conference, with vulnerable countries pledging to dig their feet in and demand funding to repair their nations.

Australia is part of a developed nation commitment to raise climate finance to $100 billion each year by 2030 - from private and public sources.

But large developed nations don't want anything in a Paris agreement that would admit liability for compensation due to climate change.

Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna said it was "no exaggeration to say this is a matter of life or death for us".

As the richest country in the region, Australia has faced calls to go in to bat for its Pacific neighbours.

Its negotiators are understood to be "strongly supporting" a vulnerable nation push to mention a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C.