moon heads to global climate talks Tuesday warning that negotiators face a race against time to prevent the meeting ending in catastrophic failure after developing nations staged a five-hour walkout. The 12-day gathering was plunged into further acrimony when the world's biggest polluter China also accused the West of trickery and trying to blame it for any failure in Copenhagen to hammer out a pact to combat global warming. US President Barack Obama, whose country is the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, said he wants a deal that imposes “meaningful steps.” But ministers admitted they had to start making giant strides before Obama and around 120 other heads of state and government gather for a summit at the climax of the troubled talks. “Time is running out,” Ban told reporters in New York before he was to leave for Copenhagen. “If everything is left to leaders to resolve at the last minute, we risk having a weak deal or no deal at all. And this would be a failure of potentially catastrophic consequence.” Ministers strived to break a deadlock in global climate talks Tuesday, three days before world leaders are meant to agree a new UN pact aimed at averting dangerous climate change. Organizers of the Copenhagen talks said environment ministers would work deep into night Tuesday to narrow wide differences, saying the bulk of the work must be complete before some 130 leaders formally join the Dec 7
