Negotiators closed in on a deal to save the only treaty governing global warming Friday, but it could still be scuttled by objections from the United States, China and India, AP quoted the top European negotiator as saying, AP reported. A 194-nation U.N. climate conference is due to end later Friday after two weeks of negotiating. Talks went through the night Thursday, with negotiators struggling to keep Durban from being labeled the graveyard of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on global warming. "If there is no further movement from what I have seen until 4 o'clock this morning, then I must say I don't think that there will be a deal in Durban," said Connie Hedegaard, the European commissioner for climate action. The proposed package would see the European Union extend its commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, but only if all other countries agree to negotiate a new treaty with legally binding obligations for everyone, not just the wealthy Kyoto group. The EU has said it will not renew its emissions reduction pledges, which expire in one year, without agreement to begin work on a treaty to replace the Kyoto accord that would compel all countries - including the world's two largest polluters the United States and China - to control their emissions. The U.S. never ratified the protocol, though it has made voluntary efforts to reduce emissions. -- SPA
