A U.N. climate summit in Mexico later this year won't broker a global accord on climate change, but may represent a positive intermediate step, the Italian environment minister said Thursday after co-hosting climate change talks. Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo said the year-end summit in Cancun will not represent a "turnaround" but can still end with a "shared framework agreement" that can serve as a basis for a future global agreement. A December summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, fell far short of the goal of a full-fledged and legally binding accord setting emission reduction targets for major countries. Expectations for the Mexico summit have been lowered as a result. "Now we are all aware that conditions aren't there for a global accord," Prestigiacomo told reporters at the end of the talks held over two days in Rome. U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern said "differences absolutely do remain" but insisted the focus remains on "how to bridge those gaps." Looking at Cancun, he said "different people mean different things" by framework. "The thing that is important to us is that all the issues move forward together," he said. "We would not support an outcome that picked off two or three issues and left others behind. I don't think other countries would be supportive of that." The closed-doors talks in Rome of the Major Economies Forum ended with no significant results, Prestigiacomo acknowledged. The delegates discussed all major outstanding issues — mitigation of greenhouse emissions, adaptation efforts, financing, verification methods among others. But, as expected, no breakthroughs were announced.

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