"The United States government lobbied the head of the U.N. climate panel to block the appointment of an Iranian scientist to a key position, saying it would be problematic, leaked U.S. diplomatic cables show.

The revelations come amid a major UN climate change meeting in Cancun where negotiators are trying to work out a modest climate change deal after the 2009 Copenhagen summit ended in a brief non-binding pact.

At a meeting in Geneva in 2008, the U.S. delegation told Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that the election of Mostafa Jafri as one of two co-chairman of a key climate group would affect U.S. funding of the climate body."

Reuters had the story December 8, 2010. [2]