UN climate talks extended into overtime in Lima

LIMA (Xinhua) - The annual UN global climate change talks has been extended into overtime as negotiators from over 190 countries are straining every nerve to bridge their differences and reach a consensus early Saturday morning local time.

Participants at the 20th Conference of Parties (COP20) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change here have struggled to break a deadlock between the developed and developing countries over the past two weeks, aimed at working out a draft for a new international climate deal ahead of key talks in Paris in 2015.

At the opening ceremony on Dec. 1, Peruvian Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, who presided over the talks as COP20/CMP10 president, had urged participants to work in a creative way to reach global consensus in the following 12 days.

Now, he was frustrated by the divisions between rich and poor.  "We don' t want to leave Lima with empty hands. We are in a time in which we should take decisions," said Pulgar-Vidal.

The talks had been scheduled to end at 6:00 p.m. (2300 GMT) Friday, but ran into the small hours of Saturday.