Mbeki pushes Earth Summit success

Mbeki will chair the Johannesburg summit

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- President Thabo Mbeki said he would launch a personal initiative to avert the threatened failure of the Earth Summit in Johannesburg.

Mbeki told parliament he would lead the search for international agreement on a draft declaration for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, often called the Earth Summit.

Last month ministers from more than 100 countries failed at talks in Bali, Indonesia, to agree a draft plan for the world's most important environmental summit, with rich and poor nations divided about the best ways to promote sustainable growth and development.

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The August conference in Johannesburg is being billed as the biggest-ever United Nations gathering. More than 100 heads of state and 60,000 delegates are expected to attend the summit and a parallel meeting of non-governmental organisations.

Mbeki, chairman of the Johannesburg summit, said the Bali meeting made some progress, but left key decisions unanswered.

"The failure to find consensus in Bali on some of these issues places increased responsibility on the president, as chairperson of the WSSD, to ensure that a basis for agreement is developed between now and August.

"We will be starting a process of consultation with the major groupings in the United Nations system to explore the possibilities of finding consensus," said Mbeki.

Environmental groups and non-governmental organisations have warned governments that the summit is heading for failure.

Environmental groups have largely blamed the U.S. for the failure of the Bali, accusing it of being reluctant to commit to some targets for action at home in the interests of business profits. The U.S. delegation has denied those charges.

The Johannesburg summit opens on August 26 and falls a decade after the landmark Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, which put environmental issues on the global political agenda.