RUSSIA: Russia signalled yesterday that it might yet salvage the UN's Kyoto Protocol on curbing global warming - a pact that will collapse without Moscow's backing - in an apparent volte face to comments the day before that it would not ratify the agreement.
"There are no decisions about ratification apart from the fact that we are moving towards ratification," said Mr Mukhamed Tsikhanov, deputy economy minister responsible for Kyoto.
On Tuesday, Mr Andrei Illarionov, a top Kremlin economic adviser, said Russia would not approve the pact in its current form.
Kyoto has been ratified by 120 nations but has been weakened by a US pull-out.
The United Nations, hosting a climate conference of 180 countries in Milan, has expressed confidence that Russia will ratify in the end despite the "mixed signals".
Moscow's government previously said it would ratify.
"I cannot comment on Illarionov but we do not have any information in the government about the fact that a decision has been made," Mr Tsikhanov told reporters.
"It is the government that takes the decision and then sends it to the Duma \." He said the government had yet to discuss the pact formally but could well pass it to the Duma next year.
The fate of the protocol, which aims to cut emissions of the gases that cause global warming, has been in Russia's hands since Washington pulled out of the pact in 2001.
It can only come into force if countries responsible for 55 percent of developed nations' emissions approve it, meaning Russia - which emits 17 per cent of greenhouse gases - has the casting vote.
Countries accounting for 44 per cent of emissions have so far signed up. It hinges on Russia because the US, the world's top polluter, has withdrawn its 36 per cent. - (Reuters)