Obama says 'meaningful' deal struck with India, 3 others Buzz Up Share Twitter Delicious Myspace Digg Stumble Upon Facebook Sat, Dec 19 10:25 AM President Barack Obama today said the US has reached a "meaningful" deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions with four emerging economies, including India, but warned it was not enough to battle climate change. "It is going to be very hard, and it's going to take some time (to achieve a legally binding deal)," he said at the conclusion of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. "We have come a long way, but we have much further to go." The deal reached by the US, India, China, South Africa and Brazil includes a method for verifying reductions of heat-trapping gases, a senior Obama administration official said. He said under the agreement, each country also will list the actions they will take to cut global warming pollution by specific amounts. The deal reiterates a goal that G-8 countries set earlier this year on long-term emission cuts and provides a mechanism to help poor countries prepare for climate change. The agreement between the US and BASIC countries was achieved after Obama held talks with leaders of the four countries, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Both Obama and Singh delayed their departure from the Danish capital as world leaders went into an extra night of discussions in a bid to hammer out a deal on climate change. Obama was quoted as saying by foreign agencies that there is a "fundamental deadlock in perspectives" between big, industrially developed countries like the United States and poorer, though sometimes large, developing nations. Meanwhile, officials said a deal has been reached by a small group of 25 countries, including India. "I think we need to see how the text is received by the broader group of countries. It is great that a small group of leaders got together and tried to advance the process but ultimately the way things work here it has to acceptable to everyone," UN Climate Chief Yvo de Boer said. Things began to turn around when US President Barack Obama came into the room where the BASIC countries were holding a meeting. They discussed all the contentious issues between the emerging economies and the developed world. Obama accompanied by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton helped in ironing out the drafting of many of the contentious clauses of the Copenhagen Accord. Following his meeting with BASIC, the president headed to meet UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicholas Sarkozy. Noting that the Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen had a huge backing, the Climate Chief expressed optimism that the deal would come through. "If it makes it through in a couple of hours time then it is a modest success," he said. It is expected that there wll be a vote on the outcome document. "I think we should have achieved more but this is an enough of a rucksack full of goods that can help us to a new stage," de Boer said. Agencies