UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday urged negotiators here to get past "microscopic examination" of text and produce a clear agenda document on sustainable development that will shape debate next month at the Rio+20 international summit.

With about three weeks to go until the conference in Rio de Janeiro, Ban issued his most detailed statement yet on the so-called outcome document. The text is supposed to frame the goals and aspirations of the troubled conference, which is being held to commemorate the first Earth Summit 20 years ago in Rio and advance green economies around the world.

Ban and other leaders close to the U.N. process have lately tried to prod negotiators with calls for a broader vision that would avoid the difficult work of treaty creation, as talks have limped from one failed negotiation session to the next. This week, diplomats are meeting here in one last rushed attempt to come to an agreement on the policies that would be under discussion in Rio.

The outcome document has grown from an initial 19-page proposal at the start of talks a few months ago to more than 200 pages, before shrinking to a more recent 80-page version. Among the proposals that have been on and off the table are eliminating fossil-fuel subsidies, elevating the U.N. Environment Programme to a World Environment Organization, doing away with gross domestic product as the measure of national economic growth and encouraging a doubling of renewable energy and technology transfer between nations.

Ban reminded diplomats yesterday that time has run out and they have to produce an agenda. He noted that the meat of the Rio conference, when heads of state will come together, lasts for only two days, so leaders will have little time to haggle over specifics.

"I do want to light a fire," Ban told negotiators. "It is time to look at -- indeed, worry about -- the big picture. When we meet in Rio, heads of state and government must have before them a concise outcome document that meets their expectations."

He added that diplomats should essentially lower their expectations and concentrate on drafting a series of "sustainable development goals" that could be pursued at later meetings with discussion of how to achieve them. This echoes an address to the General Assembly last week by Columbia University's Jeffrey Sachs, the director of the Earth Institute, who asked U.N. insiders to stop bickering over program specifics.

Ban and Sachs both have said the sustainable development goals (SDGs, in U.N. speak) would go into effect after 2015 to replace the U.N.-drafted Millennium Development Goals (or MDGs).

The MDGs, eight in number, include broad mandates like eradicating poverty, combating HIV/AIDS, reducing child mortality and ensuring environmental sustainability. Whether they have been successful remains a question, but U.N. officials maintain they have produced better outcomes around the world than if the United Nations had not promoted them, especially in the developing world (ClimateWire, May 25).

Last week, Ban told reporters during an exclusive lunch meeting that diplomats have drafted 26 SDGs so far on topics ranging from dealing with climate change to oceans to poverty to water scarcity. He has urged delegates to narrow that list.

Ban took up the same line in his address yesterday, urging agreement on "the core elements -- the 'must haves' -- for Rio."

"The finer details can wait," he said.

Ban asked member states to pare down their list of SDGs as "one of the most important deliverables of Rio+20." He also asked negotiators to look at the institutional framework for addressing sustainable development (possibly through a new agency) and throw in something on the sticky subject of technology transfer between countries.

Ban's remarks appear to be the latest indication that U.N. officials are concerned about how they will be able to brand the conference after it is over, with no expectations that an actual treaty will emerge. Robert Orr, who oversees strategic planning for the secretary-general, underlined the same point during the press briefing last week, plugging Rio+20 as a different kind of U.N. conference with more than 2,000 CEOs from all over the globe expected to attend and about 600 side events on the schedule.

Environmentalists have taken up the same line. Jacob Scherr, director of global strategy and advocacy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, recently said Rio+20 could stand out from other U.N. conferences by producing "a cloud of commitments" from private industry, local governments, nongovernmental organizations and other entities.

The latest draft of the outcome document has not been released to the media, but groups have been leaking the drafts online.

Click here to read the 80-page version that was to frame the latest round of negotiations this week.