The United States says there has been little progress made at United Nations negotiations in China this week on a new climate change treaty.
Jonathan Pershing, the chief U.S. negotiator at the talks in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, told reporters Wednesday that "there is less agreement than one might have hoped" at this point in the talks.
Delegates from more than 170 countries are gathered in Tianjin to discuss a possible successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. This week's efforts are aimed at breaking a deadlock that prevented agreement on a final, binding treaty after last year's summit in Copenhagen.
Wealthy nations such as the United States are at odds with developing nations such as China over setting limits for emissions of greenhouses gases, which has been directly linked to climate change.
Pershing says it will take a lot of work to reach a "significant outcome" at this week's discussions in Tianjin, as well as another major U.N. summit scheduled for next month Cancun, Mexico.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
