UN

Negotiators are hitting the pain barrier here in Bali, as they press on in search of an agreement after catching only a few hours' sleep last night.

But the rest of us have spent the day in the doldrums. Press conferences have been scheduled and cancelled, and any news that has percolated out has just been more of the same.

We're still fighting over the same issues. How ambitious will the roadmap be? What kind of commitments will developed and developing countries be negotiating over the next couple of years?

The next announcement is scheduled for an hour's time. We'll all turn up and wait for it to be postponed yet again. Who knows when this will end? I will be happy to get out of here before the sunrise tomorrow - but we could still be sitting around sometime tomorrow afternoon.

"We want to launch a process that is open and does not predetermine or preclude options."

This innocuous phrase represents the key fault line here in Bali - symbolising an ongoing tussle between the Europeans and North Americans.

It represents US willingness to talk about a deal, but only if concrete numbers are stripped out of the Bali declaration.