The US President, Bill Clinton, has said he will not sign any treaty from the Kyoto environment summit if it does not meet American approval.

Speaking in Washington DC, Mr Clinton said: "We're certainly going to negotiate in good faith, but we have to negotiate within the framework of our principles.

Al Gore - could be thumbs down for Kyoto

The Deputy President, Al Gore, who flies to Japan next week, added: "We are perfectly prepared to walk away from an agreement that we don't think will work."

Mr Gore, who has a track record of supporting environmental protection, said the Kyoto conference is "the beginning of the process not the end of the process."

The comments came at the end of the first day of talks among representatives of 160 countries at the environmental summit in Kyoto.

Delegates are being asked to reach agreement on a strategy to cut the world's emissions of greenhouse gases, which are thought to contribute to global warming.

But hammering out an agreement is proving difficult as many nations are divided on how this should be done.

Conference President, Hiroshi Oki, says that the United States must be flexible

The president of the summit, Hiroshi Oki, who is Japan's Environment Minister, said that he sees the key to success as flexibility on the part of the United States, the biggest producer of greenhouse gases.

He said that an effective worldwide strategy should be based on both developing and developed countries taking action and forming a technological and financial partnership.

Differing targets

The proposals at the moment range from the European Union's target of a 15% cut in greenhouse gases, to the United States position of no reduction at all for at least 10 years.

The tough US stance comes after heavy lobbying from powerful industrial interests. They say that cuts in emissions would disproportionately hit US industry resulting in jobs losses.

Developing countries, on the other hand, say they should be allowed less stringent targets than the developed world, which is responsible for the vast majority of the emissions.

US industry is responsible for around 35% of all the green house gases ever created by human activity while all the developing nations combined are estimated to have produced 15%.

Environmentalists maintain that if nothing is done, the future of the planet is bleak.

Greater progress may be made in a week's time when senior ministerial representatives, including Mr Gore, arrive at the conference to take over final negotiations.

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