Angry Prescott storms out

John Prescott: A typically passionate response

The exasperated exit of UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott summed up the sense of frustration felt by all sides after climate change talks in The Hague ended in failure.

An emotional Mr Prescott stormed out of the international talks and told waiting reporters that he was "gutted" after all-night efforts to reach a compromise on greenhouse gas emissions had failed.

I am gutted we didn't make it

John Prescott

Hours earlier the deputy prime minister had been credited with breaking the deadlock between the United States and Europe with his tough bargaining stance.

At one point the UK team had been confident the argument on how to bring about reductions could be settled.

Mr Prescott's passionate response showed how close the negotiations had come to success.

He said: "I am gutted we didn't make it, particularly for all the people who wanted to see change.

'EU rift'

"It is hard to get 160 nations to agree. Millions of people wanted to get the change and have to go on to try and get an agreement.

"A lot of little things that went wrong.

Protesters made their feelings felt at the summit

"That was unfortunate because we had got the Americans and others close to an agreement and had made some substantial changes in those last few hours, but there wasn't enough time.

"I am sorry about that, but that is life and we have to keep on going."

He hinted that a rift within the European Union also contributed to the failure of the talks.

"There could have been more unity," he said.

Despite Mr Prescott's departure, UK Environment Minister Michael Meacher stayed on in talks behind the scenes at The Hague, along with other members of the UK delegation and US delegates.

He later said he was "very disappointed" that a deal had in the end proved elusive.

"There is no doubt, we were very, very close to agreement and there has been an enormous amount of preparation for this conference."

Mr Prescott was instrumental in helping to get a deal at the Kyoto climate talks in 1997.

When they too appeared to be on the brink of collapse, he acted as go-between.