(UPDATE on second meeting added below). From the White House pool reports, with thanks to adopt a negotiator:
President Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met for 55 minutes in a room at the Bella Center, and “made progress,” a White House official said. That meeting broke up a little after 1:35 p.m. Copenhagen time.
The official called the discussion “constructive,” and said that the two men touched on all of the three issues which Mr. Obama raised during his speech: emissions goals from all key countries, verification mechanism, and financing.
Mr. Obama and Mr. Wen asked their negotiators to get together one-on-one after the meeting, as well as with other countries, “to see if an agreement can be reached,” the White House official said.
Asked if the two had achieved a breakthrough, the official said “they took a step forward and made progress.”
He said that the hope is to reach an agreement today.
UPDATE: President Obama has invited premier Wen to meet again, for another bilateral meeting to discuss outstanding issues, Reuters quoted the White House as saying in a statement. The meeting was scheduled to take place at 6:15pm local time on Friday.