As China and the US deadlocked over whether Beijing will allow the world to check its books and verify promised cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the success of the UN climate conference hung in the balance Tuesday.

Princes, presidents, and premiers crowded into a vast hall for the formal opening of the largest summit ever held on climate change, but attention was on the leaders of the world’s two largest polluters–President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao–who plan to arrive for the final days of talks on a framework to control heat-trapping gases.

New draft documents on lesser issues were floated by negotiators who have been working for 10 days but they left open the vexing questions of emissions targets for industrial countries, billions of dollars a year in funding for poor countries to contend with global warming, and verifying the actions of emerging powers like China to ensure they keep their promises.

(article and photo source: Star-Telegram)