Weeks of tough talks produced a deal that President Chirac said had met five key French conditions. Earlier in the day President Bush had signalled his support for what he called “a better way forward” on climate change.

A formal announcement was delayed until today because of Tony Blair’s absence, but President Chirac hailed what he called “an important agreement . . . which has the essential virtue, in my view, of re-establishing dialogue and co-operation between the seven Kyoto countries and the United States on a vital subject”.

In the end it came down to four key words, according to sources who were shown a late draft of the communiqué. The final document will say that climate change is “largely” due to human activity, rather than “partly”, as US negotiators wanted, sources said. But, in a concession to Washington, the document is also said to call for urgent action to achieve “our multiple priorities ” rather than specifically referring to cuts in carbon emissions.

“It sounds trivial, but these changes will have been hard-fought,” said one climate- change expert who has seen the document, adding that the wording was as strong as could be expected given the gap that had to be bridged.

Mr Bush and Mr Blair began the day with a working breakfast on the Gleneagles terrace, after which the President painted an optimistic picture of a low-carbon, high-tech future of hydrogen-powered cars and clean-burning power stations — achieved through incentives, not the mandatory carbon limits in the Kyoto accords, which he has claimed would “wreck” the US economy.

Mr Blair accepted the US position without reservation. “There’s no point in going back over the Kyoto debate,” he said. “We can’t resolve that, and we’re not going to.” The Prime Minister also ruled out any hope of a new treaty to replace Kyoto, applauding Mr Bush instead for the $20 billion that the President says the US is investing in clean-energy technologies.

M Chirac presented the deal as a victory for French negotiation last night, listing his five conditions at a press conference.

They were a recognition of the reality of climate change and human responsibility for it, a call for urgent action to slow the build-up of greenhouse gases, two references to Kyoto in the communiqué, an undertaking to negotiate a long-term climate-change strategy at the United Nations and to launch a G8 dialogue on market mechanisms for cutting carbon emissions.

He did not claim victory on all fronts but called the deal “a real change in the American position”.

After his meeting with Mr Bush, Mr Blair sidestepped calls from climate-change groups for new commitments on emissions targets by throwing the debate on global warming forward to 2012, when Kyoto’s targets will expire.

“The question is, can we go forward (and) create the conditions in which, when Kyoto ends, it’s possible for the world to move into consensus,” he said. “And if it isn’t possible then we’ve got a real problem.”

Despite M Chirac’s remarks, there is little doubt that on Mr Bush’s return to Washington tonight, he will also be able to present the climate change debate as moving his way.

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