Climate negotiators early Sunday bridged last minute disputes and sealed a commitment to negotiate a broader long-range climate treaty in marathon meetings that went into overtime in Durban, dpa reported.
The final plenary session of the climate summit also postponed a decision about extending the Kyoto Protocol to the next climate conference in Qatar in December 2012, the month in which the first five-year session of Kyoto expires.
The pledge to do so was part of an intricate tit-for-tat with the European Union, which insisted that emerging economies and the United States start paying their share of the cost of soaring carbon emissions.
The question of whether it should be extended to 2017 or 2020 was also left open. The grace period also allows time for individual countries to calculate their goals for reducing carbon emissions.
Under the broader climate deal, the 193 members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change - the umbrella for Kyoto - have until 2015 to agree on a new legally-binding climate treaty, aimed at reducing greenhouse gasses blamed for global warming.
The treaty would go into effect from 2020.