5 November 2015, 23:27 GMT
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The United States and China are determined to cooperate on concluding a deal at the Paris climate summit today or tomorrow, the White House announced in a release on Friday after a phone conversation between US President Barack Obama and China’s President Xi Jinping.
"President Obama spoke by phone last night with President Xi Jinping of China to coordinate efforts at the ongoing Paris Climate Conference," the release said. "They committed that their negotiating teams in Paris would continue to work closely together and with others to realize the vision of an ambitious climate agreement."
On Thursday, China’s special representative at the climate change negotiations in Paris said Beijing hopes to see an ambitious climate deal concluded by Friday or Saturday.
A short version of the draft Paris climate summit’s final deal was released earlier on Wednesday. It contains 29 pages, but 14 more remain to be finalized.
Paris is hosting the 21st UN Climate Change Conference, which is scheduled to end today, but the summit's ending date may be postponed to Saturday for the representatives of 195 countries to reach the legally binding agreement on climate change.
