Germany calls for binding climate deal in 2010
November 19, 2009 12:25 EST

BRUSSELS (AP) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel is calling for all countries to fix binding climate change targets next year at the latest.

She said she was worried that ambitions for talks in Copenhagen next month on a global pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions "seem to have shrunk."

Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a joint press conference in Brussels on Thursday that they both planned to attend the Copenhagen conference on Dec. 17-18 to push for a deal.

She acknowledged that a final agreement on targets would have to wait until 2010 and called for a deal in the first half of the year.