After seven days, late nights, and repeated sessions behind closed doors, 130 countries failed to reach agreement on the first international treaty concerning movement across borders of genetically-engineered organisms.
The negotiations threatened to fall apart on several occasions, as sharp differences developed on how to regulate the growing industry of biotechnology and the transport of its products.
Mr Klaus Topfer, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), exhorted the nations involved to recall that such international environmental protocols do not produce "winners or losers, but the basis for all future agreements."
Nonetheless, when a final draft was presented on Monday, more than 60 delegations expressed reservations on one aspect or another. Haiti even called it "a snake waiting to bite."
The nations present decided to suspend drafting the so-called Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety until a future date, agreeing to continue the search for consensus.
The protocol was a mandate of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a UN charter signed by 174 countries at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. The protocol is intended to create rules for transporting genetically-engineered organisms in order to minimise risks to the environment.
The crux of the conflict was over what to include in the regulations. The US, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay formed an interest group which eventually conceded that seeds with introduced genes exported to be planted in the ground should be subject to a series of risk studies before shipping.
The six countries insisted that commodities such as grains, seeds to be made into cooking oils, and products such as flour made from genetically-engineered wheat should not be included.
Their rationale is that seeds in the ground are out in the open and may pose risks to the environment, but grains or seeds that wind up in a factory pose little danger.
World wide, this industry has a growth rate comparable to information, and leading companies such as Monsanto and Novartis are worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Last year alone, more than 30 million acres of so-called transgenic crops were planted globally.
The US delegation was among the largest and most active participant in the negotiations. As the only major country that never signed on to the CBD, it was an "observer" unable to sign on to any eventual protocol. This factor unquestionably influenced all decisions.
Developing countries formed the other major bloc in this global debate. They felt commodities should be subject to risk studies. Other demands included liability in the case of accidents, carrying out social and economic impact studies prior to trade agreements, and labelling and segregating genetically-engineered organisms in shipping and handling.
The bloc leader and Ethiopian representative, Mr Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, stressed that "the idea of genetic engineering feeding the hungry is a myth." Developing countries should control their own technology, he said.
Last-minute attempts yesterday to reach consensus on a protocol agreeable to all were led by Mr Juan Mayr, Colombia Minister of the Environment.
A proposal was drafted by the EU and accepted by many developing nations. EU delegation member, Mr Rene von Schomberg, described his group's role as "offering guidance to countries that don't have their own regulations in place."
But the eleventh-hour alliance was not enough to push the protocol through.