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By Emma Farge, Olivia Le Poidevin and Rajveer Pardesi
GENEVA (Reuters) -Members of the World Health Organization are close to a deal on a treaty to prepare for future pandemics, sources involved in the talks told Reuters on Saturday, with a WHO spokesperson saying discussions had been paused until Tuesday.
The pact, which has been arduously negotiated for three years and which would be legally binding, is intended to shore up the world's defences against new pathogens after the COVID-19 pandemic killed millions of people in 2020-22.
"They (the talks) went overnight until 9 a.m. (Saturday) but didn't manage to resolve the final issues," one source involved in the discussions in Geneva said.
A diplomatic source in Geneva added that “big advancement was made ... almost all the treaty was agreed upon with few outstanding yet crucial issues”.
The talks missed a key deadline last year despite several rounds of late-night talks.
The negotiating body's co-chair had earlier told the AFP news agency that it had reached an agreement "in principle".
The United States, which was slow to join the early talks, left the discussions this year after new President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February withdrawing from the WHO and barring participation in the talks.
The other 192 members of the WHO who joined the discussions would be free to ratify the deal or not after it is formally adopted.
One of the most contentious issues between wealthy countries and developing states is how to share drugs and vaccines fairly to avoid the mistakes of the COVID era.
The negotiations have been vexed throughout by allegations from right-wing commentators, including in the U.S. but also Britain and Australia, that they could undermine national sovereignty by giving too much power to a U.N. agency.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus rejects such assertions, and says the accord would help countries better guard against pandemic outbreaks.
This week in Geneva, a small group of campaigners protested against the talks with one holding up a sign with a fanged snake uncoiling itself from the WHO symbol, with the motto: "WHO ARE YOU TO TAKE AWAY MY FREEDOMS?!"
The agreement, if finalised, would be a historic victory for the global health agency. Only once in the WHO's 75-year history have its member countries agreed to a treaty - a tobacco control accord in 2003.
(Reporting by Emma Farge and Olivia Le Poidevin in Geneva, Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Mark Potter and Mark Heinrich)
