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Pessimism surrounds EU climate talks

global
The EU and the U.S. have so far failed to reach an accord on greenhouse gas emissions  

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- European Union environment ministers have cast doubt over whether they will be able to agree on ways of cutting global warming.

The ministers, meeting for the first time since an international climate conference in The Hague, the Netherlands, collapsed last month, are trying to set out an agreed position before new transatlantic negotiations.

But Germany's environment minister was sceptical about their chances of success.

Norway has offered to host fresh talks between the EU and U.S. later this week, but only if they consider progress is likely.

The 15 EU nations are due to discuss how they can try to reach agreement with the United States in future negotiations

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EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said: "The meeting is intended to see how we could continue these discussions speaking (in a) unified (way)."

Britain's Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and France's Green environment minister Dominique Voynet, who exchanged barbed comments after the Hague failure, are meeting face-to-face for the first time since their public row.

Voynet accused Prescott of being "macho" when he claimed she had failed to understand the details of a compromise he had negotiated with Washington.

Ministers 'sceptical' on talks progress

Ministers arriving at Monday's meeting played down the significance of splits within the EU, but were also downbeat about the possibility of negotiating a new agreed position which could lead to fresh talks in Oslo.

"I am rather sceptical, but we will see," German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin said.

The Hague climate conference broke down over differences between Europe and the U.S. on how to cut emissions of the "greenhouse gases" thought to contribute to climate change.

The talks were supposed to decide the rules for implementing a 1997 pact made in Kyoto, Japan, where industrialised nations agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by an average of five percent of 1990 levels by 2010.

Greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide (CO2), are blamed by many scientists for increasing global temperatures, a trend that could lead to rising sea levels, floods and droughts.

But the EU rejected U.S. proposals to use forests and farmland as CO2 'sinks' to soak up emissions and account for some of its Kyoto targets. Europe claimed the U.S. was trying to renegotiate the Kyoto figures.

The sudden breakdown in the Hague led to recriminations between Britain, which favoured a compromise deal with the United States, and France, which backed a firmer European stance against the measures sought by the U.S.

Climate change is just one part of a two-day agenda as France tries to push ahead on a range of environmental measures, including rules on noise pollution and a law on recycling electrical and electronic waste.

Reuters contributed to this report.



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