US Deputy Secretary of State Mr Richard Armitage said the United States will come up with a substitute plan for the Kyoto treaty on global warming by July, according to Japanese media reports.
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Mr George Bush -
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Mr Armitage was quoted as saying that Washington will propose a new plan to curb global warming, which will differ from the Kyoto treaty, by seeking the participation of developing countries as well as industrialised nations.
He is said to have outlined the proposal in a meeting yesteday in Washington with a Japanese delegation of government officials and ruling coalition lawmakers.
The delegation, headed by Senior Vice Foreign Minister Mr Kiyohiro Araki, travelled to Washington to urge the United States to remain committed to the Kyoto Protocol following President George W Bush's decision last month to reject the treaty.
Kyodo news agency quoted delegation members as saying that Mr Armitage told them that Washington will come up with the new framework in time for an international conference on global warming to be held in Bonn in July.
Mr Armitage's comments come on the heels of remarks by the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, who said yesterday Washington is prepared to work with its allies on global warming but added that the Kyoto Protocol was the wrong way to do it.
The 1997 Kyoto treaty aims to reduce major industrialised nations' emissions by an average of 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012 to avoid disastrous global weather changes.
The United States signed the Kyoto Protocol, but it has not been ratified by the US Senate and Mr Bush last month said he could not support an agreement that harmed the US economy and its workers.