Climate deal could lack detail

GLENEAGLES, Scotland - British Prime Minister Tony Blair is closing in on an accord with his fellow Group of Eight leaders, officials said today, recognising climate change as an urgent problem - but with no specific targets to curb it.

Rejecting pressure groups' calls to isolate United States President George W Bush, Blair said there was no point in a deal that excluded the US, the world's largest polluter.

Instead, the G8 summit he is hosting in Scotland should set in train a "pathway" to a global accord that would replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012, one that involves both the United States and key developing nations.

The leaders will thrash out a final text tomorrow.

"We think we are getting close," one British official said.

The United States is the only one of the eight industrial countries at the summit not to have signed the Kyoto treaty to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

But President Bush said today he recognised the world had warmed and that an increase in greenhouse gases caused by people was a factor.

He said the United States needed to diversify away from fossil fuels for national security and economic reasons and looked to a "post-Kyoto era", where the world shared technologies to control climate change.

That tallied at least partly with Blair's blueprint.

"There is no way we are going to resolve the historic disagreement on Kyoto," he told reporters. "Nor is the G8 the place to negotiate a new treaty."

But he sounded markedly upbeat about the prospects of finding a form of words that would satisfy all sides.

"We do need to act on it with urgency," Blair said.

The British prime minister said he wanted the summit to agree climate change was a problem, at least partly caused by mankind, and that it required swift action.

Diplomats say France has held out for a mention of Kyoto in the leaders' final communique, a recognition of the urgent need for action and the science behind the phenomenon.

"If we have a disagreement we will be open about it," Blair said, but added: "It's too easy just to point the finger at America."

A post-Kyoto deal had to involve emerging nations, particularly India and China, who in 20 to 30 years would burn more energy than the United States, he said. But there was no chance of them signing up if Washington was not on board too.

French officials said talks, at senior diplomat level, would continue late into Wednesday. But they were also hopeful.

"France ... wants an agreement on this issue and we're pretty hopeful of reaching one," Jerome Bonnafont, President Jacques Chirac's spokesman, told reporters. "President Bush's declarations show that there is movement."

Italian diplomat Cesare Ragaglini, who has been at the forefront of negotiations on climate change, was just as upbeat.

"The final communique will give a clear indication of various actions to be taken that could lead to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

"There will be no numerical targets in it. It is an action plan and represents a first of its kind for the G8. We are very satisfied."

Blair said he was happy for Washington to be brought on board by arguments about security of energy supply rather than scientists' fears of global disaster. But environmental group Greenpeace urged other G8 leaders to isolate Bush.

"Bush is saying he will do what he can, but there is no firm commitment," Greenpeace's Stephen Tindale said.

"The rest of the G8 countries should insist on a strong, clear message on climate change, even if the result is a split communique."

- REUTERS