COPENHAGEN -- The landmark climate change negotiations in this Danish capital, all but headed for the cliff only a few hours ago, seems to have pulled back from the brink.

China's special envoy for climate change, Yu Qingtai, vigorously denied rumors, reported early Thursday morning by Reuters, that the country had given up hope for the conference.

He told Reuters: "I do not know where this rumor came from but I can assure you that the Chinese delegation came to Copenhagen with hope and have not given it up. Copenhagen is too important to fail."

The Chinese delegation postponed its scheduled news conference by a couple of hours, till 4 pm (11pm, Manila time), in what is perhaps a sign of fast-moving developments.

The executive director of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Yvo de Boer, looked tired when he faced the press at noon, but happily announced that "the cable car is moving again." He meant the negotiations were coming back on track, using a metaphor he had employed before.

He said that the negotiators had finally come to terms on the procedure to follow in the last 36 hours of a tough, often tense process.

He said the Danish government, the conference hosts, had agreed to withdraw its attempt to propose its own compromise text, and that the negotiations were back to considering only the two draft documents prepared by what the UN calls Ad Hoc Working Groups.

But the decision of the plenary to create two "contact groups" is impressed with urgency, Yvo de Boer said.

"This is going to be a matter of hours," he said.

The contact groups will only have Thursday afternoon to tighten the texts for the consideration of the heads of government on Friday.

"By the beginning of the evening, we need to face off again," he added.

He also welcomed the announcement by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the United States was now ready to support a $100-billion climate fund for the use of developing countries by 2020, an announcement that served to revive the talks. But he also expressed interest in the specifics of the initiative.

"I'm looking keenly forward to what the US contribution to that fund would be."