The two-week Copenhagen climate summit, which had seen a deadlock between leaders has finally come to some sort of conclusion as key states reach what they refer to as a “meaningful agreement.”

President Obama said the US, China, Brazil, India and South Africa had “agreed to set a mitigation target to limit warming to no more than 2C and, importantly, to take action to meet this objective”.

He added: “We are confident that we are moving in the direction of a significant accord.”

Although the Copenhagen meeting was attended by 192 countries, the outcome ultimately turned on relations between the US and China as the US pressed for monitoring of each country’s progress, suspicious that China would secretly renege on any carbon-cutting agreement.

Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt pressured the US and China to come to an agreement, saying: ”The U.S. and China account for almost half the world’s emissions. They simply must do their part. If they don’t, we will not be able to meet the 2 degree target.”

President Barack Obama said that the agreement serves as a foundation for global action but there was “much further to go.”

Negotiations at the COP15 climate summit have been halted after several developing countries withdrew their co-operation. As the word spread around the conference, activists chanted “We stand with Africa – Kyoto targets now”.

The countries that have suspended co-operation are those which make up the G77-China bloc of 130 nations. These range from wealthy countries such as South Korea, to some of the poorest states in the world.

G77-China chief negotiator Lumumba Di-Aping explained why the bloc had taken the decision to withdraw its co-operation.

“It has become clear that the Danish presidency – in the most undemocratic fashion – is advancing the interests of the developed countries at the expense of the balance of obligations between developed and developing countries,” he told BBC Radio 4′s The World at One program.

“The mistake they are doing now has reached levels that cannot be acceptable from a president who is supposed to be acting and shepherding the process on behalf of all parties.”

The Danish government has yet to make any formal response; but Australian Climate Minister Penny Wong described the suspension as “regrettable”.

Thousands of delegates from over 190 countries are gathered in Copenhagen from inside the Bella Center for the largest climate summit in history, known as COP15. Over the next two weeks, 100 world leaders are expected to attend the UN conference that has been described by some scientists as the most important the world has ever seen.

To stress the significance of the summit, fifty-six newspapers in forty-five countries are taking the unprecedented step of publishing the same editorial today. The editorial reads, quote, “Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security…Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days.”

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, spoke at a cnews conference, where he stressed the urgency of combating global warming.

“Time is up. Over the next two weeks, governments have to deliver a strong and long-term response to the challenge of climate change.

And in doing so, I see them delivering on three layers of action: first of all, fast and effective implementation right away, without delay, on adaptation, on technology, on capacity building in developing countries; secondly, ambitious commitments to cut or limit emissions, as well as startup financing for developing countries and a long-term funding commitment; and third, a long-term shared vision on a low emission future for all. It’s on those three levels that governments must deliver an ambitious response to climate change over the next two weeks.

I believe that negotiators now have the clearest signal ever from world leaders to craft a solid set of proposals to implement rapid action. And never in the seventeen years of climate change negotiations have so many different nations made so many firm pledges together. Almost every day now, countries announce new targets or plans of action to cut emissions. It’s simply unprecedented. I know two things for sure: first, there will be many more steps on the road to a safe climate future, but also few turning points; and Copenhagen must be such a turning point.”