Bush shift still falls short: UN

UNITED NATIONS: The US administration of President George W Bush has made a "significant" shift on global warming, but still falls short on the "much more aggressive" policies needed to head off its damaging impact, the UN climate chief said on Sunday.

"It's very clear that we're not on track," Yvo de Boer told media.

More than 70 presidents and prime ministers and 80 other national representatives are gathering here for Monday's UN "climate summit."

The unprecedented meeting comes in a year when a series of authoritative scientific reports have warned of a drastically changed planet by 2100, from rising seas, drought and other factors, unless nations rein in their emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.

Monday's one-day session is designed to build political momentum toward progress at December's annual UN climate treaty conference, in Bali, Indonesia.

"It would be very difficult for the big developing countries like China, India, Brazil to comprehend why they should be acting to limit the growth of their emissions in the context of an agreement of which the US is not part," Boer said.

De Boer cited the Washington meeting as another example of what he called "significant political change over the past year" in the Bush administration's position.

Skeptical environmentalists see no sign the US leadership is backing away from its opposition to Kyoto-style mandatory emissions cutbacks, which Bush objects would damage the US economy and should also have been imposed on such fast-growing poorer countries as China and India.