The European Union's top environment official said today she feared the United States was trying to wreck next week's international negotiations to salvage the Kyoto pact on climate change.
EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said she believed the United States was pressuring its allies to block a deal that would save the 1997 agreement on cutting greenhouse gases that US President George W. Bush rejected in March.
"We have been relying on their promise to us not to obstruct the Kyoto process. It's importantthat they don't put too much pressure on their partners in the so-called umbrella group not to take part and negotiate," Ms Wallstrom said.
The umbrella group is made up of the conservative countries that previously negotiated climate change measures alongside the US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Norway.
"I think that they are putting rather high pressure on their partners in the umbrella group," Ms Wallstrom said.
Ms Wallstrom wants those countries to join the EU in pushing ahead with the Kyoto deal despite the US withdrawal.
The United Nations-sponsored deal commits developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent of 1990 levels by 2012. The Bonn talks are aimed at defining the rules on how the deal will work in practice.