(HENNING BAGGER/AFP/Getty Images)
Hillary Clinton gives a press conference at the Bella Center.

COPENHAGEN -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton today announced that the United States will rally support for a $100 billion global fund to benefit poor countries' efforts to fight climate change, in a bid to jump-start stalled talks at the U.N. summit here.

But she said that the new funding, which would start by 2020, would be contingent on negotiators agreeing to a framework that the U.S. can support. Otherwise, "there will not be that kind of financial commitment at least from the United States," Clinton said.

This framework includes having China and other major developing nations agree to international scrutiny for their actions to reduce greenhouse gases. As of late Wednesday, Chinese officials were still refusing, one major division among several still left here.

Clinton -- who said she arrived "several hours" before the start of the late-morning news conference and was briefed on the status of the talks -- said President Obama is still planning to be here on the last day of the conference Friday. "Obviously, we hope that there will be something... to come for," she said.

Signs of progress came shortly after Clinton's address when Yvo de Boer, the top U.N. climate negotiator, said that talks have restarted after nations acceded to the wishes of African and other poor countries to continue having two separate negotiating tracks that look to extend the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and create a new separate treaty. Those two separate working groups will then offer their recommendations to the full 193-nation plenary, he said.

"Hold tight and mind the doors, the cable car is moving again," de Boer said, continuing his running analogy of climbing a mountain toward a political agreement.

Smaller, poorer nations have felt left out of the discussions between the major players, and they want to extend Kyoto beyond its 2013 expiration to better ensure that rich nations will have to adhere to new emission reduction targets. The U.S. and China -- who are not covered under Kyoto -- and other major players have been focused on moving toward a new treaty.

The U.S. idea for a $100 billion global fund represents the lower end of long-term global commitments for rich nations collectively that Great Britain and the European Union have suggested. "Well, $100 billion a year is a lot of money," Clinton said. The funding level is "appropriate, usable and will be effective," she said.

Clinton, though, did not indicate how much the U.S. would contribute to the fund. Other issues remain as well regarding how funds are overseen and ensuring that parties who receive funding can also have a reasonable level of control over the use of the funds.

Clinton emphasized that the United States is only planning to provide funds "for the poorest and most vulnerable among us," which does not include China.

She said the funding would come "from a variety of sources," both public and private, and alternative sources that she did not specify.

The reaction from environmental groups and other observers here who are supportive of a strong framework for a new climate treaty said Clinton's message will light a fire under the sluggish talks as Friday's deadline rapidly approaches.

"It has re-energized the talks here," said Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Others, though, like Oxfam want all financing to come from public sources. "It is absolutely crucial that this funding come from public sources in developed countries and be additional to current development assistance commitments," the group said in a statement. "Private financing is no substitute for public investment in the resilience of the poorest and most vulnerable communities."