China played an "important and constructive" role in sealing the last-minute Copenhagen Accord, Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday, even as he urged the international community to treasure the summit's hard-won outcome.

Observers tracking the progress of the climate change talks agreed with Wen's assessment, saying China was making persistent efforts to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. They also criticized the Western media for being unaware of the progress the country was making in this direction.

Amid Western media reports that the country had wrecked a binding deal at Copenhagen, Premier Wen told Xinhua News Agency in an interview after his return from the conference that China had worked closely with other countries during the 13-day climate change negotiations.

"The communication process was open, transparent and highly efficient, which played a very important role in securing the outcome," Wen said. "China always does that with the utmost sincerity and effort."

Ever since Nov 26, when China pledged to cut carbon intensity by 40-45 percent (from 2005 levels) before 2020, Wen has been involved in intensive diplomatic efforts, including wide-ranging telephone talks with world leaders, to move forward the Copenhagen agenda.

He also met up with key heads of state from rich countries, the developing bloc, island nations, and from Africa after arriving in Copenhagen.

Without such efforts, the observers pointed out, even such an accord would not have been possible given the vastly different positions of the developed and developing nations.