Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Friday the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol reflected a broad consensus among all parties and therefore must be further strengthened.

Speaking at the opening session of the final summit segment of the UN climate change conference, Wen said the campaign against climate change hadn't just started, the international community had been engaged in this endeavor for decades now.

"The UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol are the outcomes of long and hard work by all countries" and the two documents reflected the broad consensus among all parties and served as the legal basis and guide for international cooperation on climate change, Wen said.

So the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol "must be highly valued and further strengthened and developed," he said.

Wen said the outcome of the Copenhagen conference must stick to, rather than obscure, the basic principles enshrined in the convention and the protocol and it must follow, rather than deviate from, the mandate of the "Bali Roadmap."

"It should lock up rather than deny the consensus and progress already achieved in the negotiations," Wen said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 18, 2009)