Russia and China today backed the Kyoto protocol to cut emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for warming the planet.
Russian Prime Minister Mr Mikhail Kasyanov told the Earth Summit he expected Moscow to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on global warming soon.
Russian ratification would, due to a complex weighting system, virtually ensure the treaty is implemented despite its rejection by the biggest air polluter, the United States.
The treaty has been passed to the Russian parliament. European Union nations in particular are pressing Russia to have its parliament ratify the 1997 treaty as soon as possible to bring it into effect and open the way to special aid flows for poor countries hit by climate change.
China, the world's second biggest polluter, earlier told the UN meeting it had ratified the agreement. But, as a developing country, China is not bound by any goals for restraining emissions of carbon dioxide, mostly caused by burning fossil fuels such as oil and coal.
Targets under Kyoto so far apply only to developed states but might in future be extended to China, the world's most populous nation with more than a billion people.
The Kyoto climate pact holds industrialised nations to cutting emissions of carbon dioxide to around 5 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.