Leaders of the world's most vulnerable countries this week said the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol is key to their survival.

Wrapping up a two-day meeting in Dhaka, Bangladesh, that was inaugurated by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, ministers of 19 nations issued a declaration committing their own countries -- some of the poorest in the world -- to low-carbon development while calling on major industrialized nations to cut back emissions of greenhouse gases.

"We want the world to know that we are those affected most dearly without having contributed to the problem," said Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Ambassador Mohamed Mijarul Quayes. In a telephone interview with ClimateWire, Quayes said he is proud to see the least-developed countries, African nations, small island states and others that face the worst threats of rising temperatures coalesce as a major force.

"We want to take the high moral ground and lead by example," he said.

The meeting of the Climate Vulnerability Forum comes just weeks before a major U.N. climate conference in Durban, South Africa. There the major focus will be the future of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which obligates industrialized countries to cut emissions. The first phase of Kyoto ends in 2012, and developing countries say seeing wealthy countries make even stronger commitments for a second phase is their top priority. Meanwhile, Japan, Russia, Canada and others say they have already closed the door to the idea of submitting new targets for a second phase of Kyoto, and instead are insisting on a global deal that demands cuts of both industrialized and major developing nations.

While those countries bicker, vulnerable country leaders this week said they are moving ahead.

"We as vulnerable countries, resolve to demonstrate moral leadership by committing to a low-carbon development path on a voluntary basis within the limitations of our respective capabilities, which are to a large extent externally determined by the availability of appropriate financial and technological support, and call on all other nations to follow this moral leadership," the declaration reads.

In addition to demanding a continuation of Kyoto, countries in Dhaka this week said they want to see the climate aid that the United States and other wealthy countries have promised. They demanded the establishment of the Green Climate Fund -- agreed to at a U.N. conference last year -- by 2013 at the latest, and said at least half the money that flows through it should go toward adaptation.

The 19 signatory countries that adopted the declaration were: Afghanistan, Bangladesh (chair), Bhutan, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Nepal, Philippines, Rwanda, St. Lucia, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Vietnam.