OSLO (REUTERS) - Government negotiators at a UN climate conference in Paris will meet on Sunday, a day earlier than planned, to let them get down to work before world leaders arrive for a summit on Monday.

The UN Climate Secretariat said on Wednesday that senior officials from almost 200 nations would meet in the conference hall on the outskirts of Paris on Nov 29 at 1600 GMT (midnight on Monday, Singapore time).

Until now, they had been due to meet for the first time only after about 140 world leaders including US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping attended on Monday to give speeches of encouragement.

Officials who oversee the talks "considered that an early opening of the session will offer an opportunity to make the best possible use of the very limited time available to finalise negotiations", the Secretariat said in a statement.

The conference, lasting until Dec 11, is seeking to agree a deal that signals a break with a rising reliance on fossil fuels, blamed by a UN panel of scientists for causing more floods, heat waves and rising sea levels.