The world's biggest nature conservation conference resumes in Rome next week for an urgent attempt at overcoming a deadlock between northern and southern countries over funding for nature protection.

Countries meeting at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters must agree on how nature funds should be governed -- a key step towards the goal of halting destruction of nature by 2030.

Their last attempt, in November, ended in disarray: the 16th Conference of Parties (COP16), held in Colombia, broke down due to a spat between poor and rich country blocs.

But with up to a quarter of assessed plants and animals now at risk of extinction, the world could not afford simply to wait for the next nature talks in 2026.

Instead, the 196 signatory countries to the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) were invited to three days of overtime negotiations in the Italian capital, starting Tuesday, February 25.

They will begin where they left off -- amid an ever more challenging geopolitical context.

Arnaud Gilles, of WWF France, told AFP he was not optimistic positions have changed in four months.

"At the........

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