President Bush last night remained determined to abandon an international agreement on global warming, despite angry protests from European leaders. During a two-hour meeting at the White House, the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, failed to persuade Mr Bush to change his mind on the issue.
Mr Bush announced this week that the US would not ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which binds industrialised nations to reduce the greenhouse gases that scientists believe to be the cause of climate change.
The EU Environment Commissioner, Ms Margot Wallstrom, warned that the row between Europe and the US over global warming could have a wider impact. "This isn't some marginal environmental issue that can be ignored or played down," she said.
Ms Wallstrom will travel to Washington next week with the Swedish and Belgian Environment Ministers in an attempt to clarify the US position. She said yesterday that she was not opposed to a US proposal to make cutting emissions more cost-effective but insisted that the Kyoto Protocol must remain the basis of negotiations.
Politicians throughout Europe reacted with outrage to Mr Bush's decision, which the French Environment Minister, Ms Dominique Voynet, described as "thoroughly provocative and irresponsible".
Green members of the European Parliament called for a boycott of US oil companies until Mr Bush changes his mind. And the Italian Environment Minister, Mr Willer Bordon, suggested that US firms could be penalised if the EU went ahead and ratified the Kyoto Protocol alone.
"The protocol can come into force even without the United States, but counter-measures would be needed to ensure Europeans are not penalised for their environmentalism," he said.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mr Schroder said the US had a moral imperative to meet carbon dioxide emission standards to protect the environment for future generations.
