Delegates deadlocked as UN nature meet nears end

Delegates from more than 190 countries remain deadlocked at a U.N. conference on preserving biodiversity, raising the prospect that the two-week meeting will end in failure.

Participants said Friday the biggest sticking point was a division between developing and industrial nations over a system to fairly share in genetic resources, such as medicine extracted from plants - long a sore point among poor countries.

Government ministers at the Convention of Biodiversity meeting, held in Nagoya, southwest of Tokyo, have been able to agree on 16 of 20 strategic goals for 2020. But they have failed to reach consensus on the most contentious targets, including how much ocean space to set aside as protected.