World leaders gather in Copenhagen for final day

US President Barack Obama arrived in a snowy Copenhagen this morning as around 115 world leaders joined negotiators from 192 countries to hammer out a political agreement to halt climate change.

The arrival of Premier Wen Jiabao of China and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh means that leaders of the world's largest economies will be sitting around for the final day of the two week meeting.

Ed Miliband and a group of negotiators were up for much of the night trying to progress negotiations.

There was cautious optimism following yesterday's intervention by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who announced that Washington was prepared to provide, in conjunction with other rich nations, $100bn on the crucial issue of climate finance.

Today (Friday), a DECC spokesperson said 'Negotiations have run into the night but there is still a lot of work to do if we are to reach successful outcome in Copenhagen. The stakes remain high and the Prime Minister and Ed Miliband have been working hard with their counterparts to ensure an ambitious agreement can be reached in the final stretch of these talks.'

Last night Climate Change Minister Joan Ruddock told BBC News: 'We are feeling in a rather better mood this evening and also we've had a major announcement from the United States which has been very, very helpful.'