European leaders declared the Kyoto climate change treaty very much alive, but US officials maintained that the international pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions remained dead in their eyes.
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President George W Bush
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Meetings between top aides to President Bush and senior European Commission officials in Washington ended in a stalemate last night.
The Europeans vowed to finalize and ratify a final climate treaty by next year while the Americans, who have rejected the Kyoto treaty on cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, said they would sort out alternatives.
The United States, the world's biggest producer of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, has been harshly criticized by Europe and Asia for dumping the proposed Kyoto treaty on the grounds that it would harm the US economy.
Frustrated European Commission officials said they held out hope that the new White House would eventually see the logic in joining the world fight against climate change.
The Kyoto treaty is due to take effect next year after at least half of the 110 nations which signed it ratify it. The pact aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions by major industrialized nations by an average 5.2 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.