Beijing tries to save summit nature accord

MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — China, which chairs a high-stakes United Nations biodiversity summit in Montreal, is due to present a long-awaited compromise text on Sunday in an attempt to seal the "peace pact with nature" that the planet sorely needs.

More than 10 days of fraught biodiversity negotiations look to be coming to a head as delegates prepare to wrangle over the compromise draft agreement.

"It is not a perfect document, not a document that will make everyone happy, however it is a document that is based on the efforts of all of us over the last four years," China's Environment Minister Huang Rinqiu said.

"It is a document that must be adopted at this meeting that is highly expected by the international community."

Observers had warned the COP15 conference risked collapse as countries squabbled over how much the rich world should pay to fund the efforts, with developing countries walking out of talks at one point.

But conference leaders turned upbeat Saturday on their chances of securing a deal.

Huang said he was "greatly confident" of a consensus and his Canadian counterpart Steven Guilbeault said "tremendous progress" had been made.

Huang said he would publish a draft agreement at 8 a.m. EST on Sunday and hear lead delegates' feedback later in the day.

The negotiations officially run until 19 December, but could go longer if needed.

Delegates are working to roll back the destruction and pollution that threaten an estimated one million plant and animal species with extinction, according to scientists that report to the UN.

The text is meant to be a roadmap for nations through 2030. The last 10-year plan, signed in Aichi, Japan in 2010, did not achieve any of its objectives — a failure blamed widely on its lack of monitoring mechanisms.