COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama plans to leave Copenhagen late on Friday night, his press secretary said, but hopes to reach a political deal before he departs because failure to do so would be a "disgrace."
Kazuo Kodama, speaking for Hatoyama, said world leaders were still working to reach a deal but were negotiating without China's Premier Wen Jiabao who left an earlier meeting and had not returned.
Wen later headed into a second bilateral meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama.
"Premier Wen requested that he needed a break to give more thought to the issues. After the break China did not return to the table, so now discussion is being resumed without China being present," Kodama quoted Hatoyama as telling Japanese journalists.
Hatoyama had slipped out of the negotiations to update the media on the main obstacle to a deal, a rift between China and the developed world, Kodama added.
"The issue now is a seemingly unbridgeable gap between China on one hand and the European Union, the United States and Japan on the other," he quoted Hatoyama saying.
The prime minister planned to fly back to Tokyo late on Friday night, Kodama said, but said the gathered premiers and presidents had a duty to reach a deal before then.
"If we cannot manage that we will not have fulfilled our responsibilities as world leaders, which is a disgrace to the world."
(Reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Dominic Evans)
