UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called yesterday for a roadmap at the ongoing Bali conference for the post-Kyoto climate negotiation.

Ban told reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York before he sets off for the Bali Conference that "our ultimate goal is a comprehensive agreement on climate change that all nations can embrace."

"In Bali, we need to set an agenda -- a roadmap to a better future, coupled with a timeline that produces a deal by 2009," he said.

The Secretary-General noted that it will take roughly two years to ratify a successor agreement.

The fact that the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012 leaves the international community only two years to negotiate "one of the most complex multilateral treaties ever to be undertaken," he said.

"It's time to discuss solution -- to solve this problem," Ban stressed.