Countries split on plastics treaty focus as UN talks close

FILE PHOTO: A plastic bottle lies on the sand at Maccarese beach, west of Rome, Italy November 21, 2018. REUTERS/Max Rossi

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The first round of negotiations on a global plastics treaty ended on Friday with agreement to end plastic pollution but a split on whether goals and efforts should be global and mandatory, or voluntary and country-led.

More than 2,000 delegates from 160 countries, meeting in Uruguay in the first of a planned five sessions of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), aim to craft the first legally binding agreement on plastic pollution by the end of 2024.