Pro-Kyoto groups target Japan

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

BONN, Germany -- Key talks to rescue the Kyoto greenhouse emissions pact have begun at a United Nations conference on global warming.

Environmental campaigners have targeted Japan, who they say has the chance to save or kill the Kyoto agreement.

Thousands of protesters are expected to converge on Bonn, Germany, for the two-week conference, and city police told The Associated Press that they are prepared for violence.

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.

To progress, the pact must be ratified by 55 countries accounting for 55 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions in 1990.

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More than 80 countries have signed the Kyoto pact, but no major polluter has ratified the treaty.

And if Japan pulls out, the 55 percent emissions target cannot be reached.

Greenpeace climate expert Bill Hare said: "The protocol is clearly hanging by a thread. Japan's indecision is casting a big cloud over the negotiation."

Jennifer Morgan, of the World Wildlife Fund, added: "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 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.

Delegates from 180 countries are in Bonn attempting to find a Kyoto rescue deal.

Conference chairman and Dutch Environment Minister Jan Pronk, told Monday's opening session: "It's crucial that we bring our four years of work to completion," AP reported.

"We need to get good results for ourselves, for the ministers and the public."

But Japanese Premier Junichiro Koizumi said talks scheduled for Marrakesh, Morocco, in October present a more realistic target for settling key issues.

Koizumi told the Reuters news agency: "We will not be able to reach an agreement in Bonn but there will be another meeting in Morocco in October. Japan will do its utmost so the protocol can be enacted in 2002."

Scientists believe the gases -- mostly a result of burning fossil fuels -- trap heat into the earth's atmosphere, contributing to global warming, which could cause disastrous weather changes and floods over the next 100 years.

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 EU has decided to ratify the Kyoto treaty next year even without the U.S., but Koizumi is still holding out for the Bush administration to participate

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.

The EU, U.N. and environmental groups have all expressed anger at Bush's decision not to ratify the Kyoto deal.

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.