Negotiators must speed up to get plastics deal, chair warns

Negotiators must move "significantly" faster to agree on a landmark treaty to curb plastic pollution, the diplomat chairing the talks warned on Nov 27, as countries lined up to express frustration about the limited progress.

Nearly 200 countries are gathered in South Korea's Busan city with the goal of reaching a deal by the end of the week.

The process caps two years of talks over four previous rounds of negotiations that have been stalled by deep divisions about what the treaty should look like.

Addressing negotiators on the third day of talks, Mr Luis Vayas Valdivieso warned that work was not advancing quickly enough.

"I must be honest with you, progress has been too slow. We need to speed up our work significantly," the Ecuadorian diplomat said.

"We must accelerate our efforts to reach consensus on the binding instrument by December 1."

His call was followed by a string of frustrated speeches from countries including Fiji, Panama, Norway and Colombia.