Delegates from 194 countries meeting in South Africa have reached a hard-fought agreement on a complex plan to fight global warming in coming decades.

Countries agreed early Sunday to a new round of talks on ways to protect the environment. The talks will also establish conditions for an extension of the Kyoto Protocol environmental agreement beyond 2012 when it is due to expire.

Representatives negotiated well past Friday's scheduled end to the debate on climate change in the port city of Durban.

Much of the debate focused on the European Union proposal to push major polluters in developed and fast-growing economies such as China and India, to accept legally binding cuts of their greenhouse gas emissions.

South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who chaired the conference, had warned delegates that failure to agree would be an unsustainable setback for international efforts to control greenhouse gases.

“Adopt this document as the Durban outcome. Your years, your months, your weeks, days and nights have been spent leading to this day. You have stayed here one extra day for that purpose. Let's adopt this document and make all the effort that we have put in this work count for something.”

Recent United Nations reports warned that delays in reducing greenhouse gas emissions will make it harder to prevent a catastrophic rise in average global temperature.

EU Commissioner for Climate Change Connie Hedegaard also has been urging delegates to reach a compromise deal before time runs out.

The EU says it will not renew its emission reduction pledges under the Kyoto Protocol unless all countries are committed to controlling their emissions.

The United States says it will only pledge binding cuts if all major polluters make comparable commitments. China and India say their cuts should be less than developed nations. The three countries are not bound by the Kyoto Protocol.