Talks will begin next year on the future of international co-operation on climate change, after the US withdrew its objections to such discussions at the end of a marathon negotiating session on Saturday in Montreal.

The agreement was hailed as a “triumph” by the UK, which chairs both the Group of Seven leading economies and the European Union. Critics of the United Nations-brokered Kyoto protocol on climate change have called for its demise since it was signed in 1997.