US: Bush administration officials working behind the scenes have succeeded in weakening key sections of a proposal for joint action by the eight major industrialised nations to curb climate change.
Under US pressure, negotiators in the past month have agreed to delete language that would detail how rising temperatures are affecting the globe; set ambitious targets to cut carbon-dioxide emissions; and to establish stricter environmental standards for World Bank-funded power projects, according to documents obtained by the Washington Post.
Negotiators met this week in London to work out details of the document, which is due to be adopted next month at the Group of Eight's annual meeting in Scotland.
The US administration's push to alter the G8's plan on global warming marks its latest effort to edit scientific or policy documents to accord with its position that mandatory carbon-dioxide cuts are unnecessary.
Under mounting international pressure to adopt stricter controls on heat-trapping gas emissions, Bush officials have consistently sought to modify US government and international reports that would endorse a more aggressive approach to mitigating global warming.
Last week the New York Times reported that a senior White House official had altered government documents to emphasise the uncertainties surrounding the science on global warming.