UN summit: Brazil picks up baton

Brazil on Saturday took the helm of talks to forge a global deal on preserving the environment and rooting out poverty ahead of a gathering of world leaders starting in just four days. Five months of negotiations on a vast document, due to be endorsed at the three-day summit climaxing the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, have failed to break the deadlock on several issues.

The task of coaxing out a deal fell to Brazil, as host of the "Rio+20" talks, which marks the 20th anniversary of the summit that yielded landmark agreements on climate change, desertification and biodiversity. Sha Zukang, the Rio+20 secretary general, said on Saturday that "encouraging progress" were made by the splintered negotiation groups late Friday, with 37 per cent of the text agreed upon by stakeholders.

"The Conference has entered a new phase," Nikhil Seth, head of the UN Sustainable Development division, also told a press briefing on Saturday.

During the handover ceremony, Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said the discussions were expected to conclude today.

-AFP