China was holding an historic world deal on global warming in the balance last night as negotiators struggled to accommodate its demand for no new commitments from developing countries on output of greenhouse gases.
Delegates were struggling to find some compromise as last night's deadline loomed without any progress from Tuesday's draft text.
Despite three days of intense negotiations, China and the United States remained unmoveable on their positions on one article of the draft.
Under the plan, binding emission targets would only be set for industrialised countries. But the US and China could not agree over Article No 10 in a list of 28 points under discussion, which says developing countries can sign up voluntarily when they are ready for binding targets that they can set.
China and other developing countries, including India, Indonesia and Brazil, fear they will face pressure to sign if the clause is left in, and insist that richer countries must prove they can stick to their figures before demanding more of other nations.
The US says without such a clause there is no chance of ratification of the protocol by its own Senate, rendering a deal meaningless. A source close to the negotiations said that China said it would not sign if Article 10 was included, and the US said it would not sign if the article was excluded.
Delegates had also not resolved the issue of how much developed countries could 'trade' emissions between each other.
