Obama leaves Washington later on Thursday and is expected to arrive in Denmark around 8 a.m. local time on Friday, U.S. officials told reporters on a conference call.
He will give a brief address at a plenary session with other world leaders and emphasize the renewed U.S. commitment to show leadership on global warming, but he is not expected to be more specific about Washington's pledge to help provide funding for poor countries dealing with climate change.
That pledge is tied to monitoring, reporting and verification requirements by China and other big developing countries on their emissions curbs. China has resisted such requirements.
One U.S. official said progress was being made on that issue and others ahead of Obama's arrival.
"We're making progress on all of our outstanding issues with the Chinese. We have a good dialogue going and there are other parties as well," the official said.
"There's still a way to go on all the issues and there's not much time left, so we certainly can't predict at this point what the outcome of the conference will be," he said.
Obama, who delayed a decision on whether to attend the talks until just weeks ago, is staking his credibility on the still elusive deal with ramifications for him at home and on the world stage.
Asked whether the president was concerned about returning empty-handed from Copenhagen for a second time this year after failing to secure the 2016 Olympics for Chicago, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, "Coming back with an empty agreement would be far worse than coming back empty-handed."
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