Consensus watered down as US rules out targets

THE contentious rich versus poor fight over globalisation plagued the UN summit yesterday as negotiators squabbled over water.

Delegates were at odds over how to achieve a UN goal to reduce by at least half the 2.4 billion people without access to water and proper sanitation by 2015.

On Tuesday, delegates hailed their first breakthrough: a deal to protect the world's oceans and marine life.