Breakthrough was then far from certain with sticking points that included an extension of the Kyoto Protocol, the only global pact enforcing carbon cuts.
At a meeting of European Union leaders this month, tempers flared when Germany, backed by France, called on countries using the euro to agree to a pact enforcing German-style fiscal discipline and wage restraint.
And by dawn on Friday, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France had indeed announced that Britain would stand aside from a new pact enforcing stricter financial controls on European nations.
David Cameron, the British prime minister, vetoed a revision of the EU treaties, forcing the rest to seek a separate pact to enforce greater fiscal discipline.
Privately, Italian officials voice frustration at what they perceive as German intransigeance, and they question Mrs. Merkel's dogged pursuit of a fiscal pact to enforce stricter budget discipline in the euro zone when bond markets are demanding a stronger financial backstop.
The Czech Republic was the only EU member apart from Britain to refuse to join the so-called "fiscal pact" to enforce budget discipline.
While recent reforms are a sensible step in the direction of greater flexibility, ambiguities in their design all but eliminate the possibility that the pact will be effectively enforced.
One pact that Washington wants enforced more strongly is the Chemical Weapons Convention where, Mr. Bolton said, the administration is prepared to use unscheduled on-site inspections to crack down on violators.
Yet Portugal has already breached the 3% limit, France and Germany are close to it, Italy will be pushed to meet the 2004 deadline and France is heading for an official rebuke from the pact's enforcer, the European Commission.
Even if a new accord is signed in Geneva, the job of enforcing the pact could be a dangerous and lengthy one, military analysts say -- particularly if one or more of the three warring factions is unwilling to cooperate with the peacekeepers.
On Monday, Warren fired back, showing that Obama simply has not effectively enforced existing labor standards in prior trade pacts.
