Japan at centre of Kyoto talks

A Greenpeace protester wears a mask of Bush and holds a torn paper, symbolising the Kyoto treaty

BONN, Germany -- Environment officials from some 180 countries are seeking to narrow differences between the industrial powers that could wreck the Kyoto accord.

Japan is the centre of attention on the second day of the U.N.-sponsored talks in Bonn because the Kyoto greenhouse emissions pact cannot be ratified without its support.

The Kyoto pact is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. It was negotiated in 1997 by the U.S. and major industrialised nations, but U.S. President George W. Bush has since rejected it.

European Union countries and the U.S. are in disagreement over the pact and Japan has so far insisted it will not ratify the treaty without Washington being back on board.

Japanese Environment Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi issued a statement overnight "clarifying" its position following cautious remarks on Sunday by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who said talks scheduled for Marrakesh, Morocco, in October present a more realistic target for settling key issues.

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Kawaguchi's statement said: "Japan will do its utmost to achieve broadest possible agreement at COP6 [formal name of the meeting in Bonn] resumed session, aiming at the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol by 2002."

The EU has said it will ratify the Kyoto treaty next year even without the U.S., but Koizumi is still holding out for the Bush administration to participate. Without Japan, Europe has virtually no chance of securing the weighted majority of industrial, polluting states needed to give the protocol legal weight.

"Participation of the U.S. is critically important and Japan is engaged in consultations with the U.S. Japan does not, however, intend to delay multilateral negotiations because of these consultations," Kawaguchih's statement read.

Koizumi's remarks on Monday were greeted by anger from environmental activists accusing Tokyo of delaying a pact they see as crucial to saving much of the planet's coasts and islands from drowning as greenhouse gas build-ups threaten to melt polar ice-caps.

Jennifer Morgan, of the World Wildlife Fund, said: "The credibility of Japan as a responsible global actor is at stake. It would be tragic if Japan's vacillation killed a vital U.N. agreement."

The ministerial talks last until Sunday coinciding with the Group of Eight (G8) meeting in the Italian port of Genoa.

Some European Union officials have not given up hope of bringing Japan on board in a bid to have the pact ratified by a majority of key powers.

German negotiator Carsten Sach told Reuters: "I think it can be saved. The situation is difficult, especially after recent comments by the Japanese premier but on the other hand, the Japanese delegation has let it be known that they are still interested in a result and this is the route we are going to follow."

The pact was made in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, where industrialised nations agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by an average of five percent of 1990 levels by 2010.

Bush renounced the Kyoto pact in March, saying it was based on questionable science and unfair because it exempts big developing countries like China and India.

The U.S., the biggest emitter of man-made carbon dioxide, produces 36.1 percent of the gas, the EU accounts for 24.2 percent, and Japan is responsible for 8.5 percent.

This month a new report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change -- a group of scientists convened 13 years ago -- said the Earth is now warming faster than at any time in the previous 1,000 years.

The report said the blanket of heat-trapping gases has already raised ground temperatures by one-half degree Celsius (1.1 F) in the last 100 years, and scientists say the pace could quicken dramatically over the next 100 unless pollution is limited.