LE BOURGET, France — The Paris climate talks are heading into overtime on Friday night, following an arduous all-night session on Thursday during which some countries allegedly teamed up together to cut out some of the more ambitious provisions in the draft text.

Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Tony de Brum, who leads the new "High Ambition Coalition" that includes the U.S., Canada, E.U., Philippines and most recently Brazil, said it may take another all-night session to resolve remaining issues.

De Brum told reporters that on Thursday night into the early hours of Friday, local time, a group of countries fought to strip out provisions relating to the temperature target in the climate agreement, as well as a long-term goal aimed at sending a jolt to the marketplace that decarbonizing the economy is now a global priority.

"Our leaders gave us the strongest possible mandate last week, and last night we sat in a negotiating room listening to a coordinated campaign to gut the text of ambition," de Brum said. "These included interventions requesting the deletion of long-term emissions pathways, concrete language to land the 5-year revisiting of targets, and a refusal to recognize the science.”

De Brum did not name the nations that were trying to weaken the text, although The Guardian as well as climate activists familiar with the negotiations going on behind closed doors have reported that they were Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Russia, plus China, India and Malaysia.

“So we come again to sound a clarion call to the world to raise their voices and say we will not accept these divisions, deletions, we’re not hear to accept a minimalist Paris agreement, this is our red line,” de Brum said.

Secretary Kerry Meets With French Foreign Minister Fabius Before a Bilateral Meeting in Paris. Image: Sipa via AP Images/Associated Press

These countries sought to remove any references to a global warming target of 1.5 degrees Celsius, as well as provisions calling for a mandatory review of countries' emissions reduction plans.

Notably, President Obama spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday, after speaking with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These calls were part of the White House's engagement with the negotiations here in Paris, as the administration coordinates with the negotiating team on the ground, led by Secretary of State John Kerry.

Tine Sundtoft, Norway's environment and climate minister, expressed Norway's support for the coalition, which may act as a loosely knit counterweight to some members of the Group of 77 developing nations plus China. “Our coalition needs to get bigger and stronger," she said. “We cannot leave paris without an ambitious agreement."

“Paris must set the path to a low emissions society.”

The draft agreement released on Thursday evening incorporated a temperature target of holding global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, and preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a target sought by small island states and many other countries that are highly vulnerable to climate change impacts, such as sea level rise.

De Brum's home of the Marshall Islands already faces increased coastal flooding risk because of sea level rise, and this threat will only grow in the coming years if unfettered greenhouse gas emissions continue.

Thursday evening's draft agreement aims for "carbon neutrality" toward the latter half of the century, without defining what that term means. It is possible that the final draft, which is still supposed to come out on Saturday, will refer to "greenhouse gas emissions neutrality," which is more precise and would necessitate a near-complete decarbonization of the world economy by 2100.

Throughout the day Friday, countries were holding bilateral and multilateral consultations to try to arrive at compromise language that could be incorporated into the final draft.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who is the president of these negotiations on behalf of the host country, has said he intends to unveil a new draft Saturday morning with adoption of a new agreement to follow later in the day.