Climate deal runs into trouble with US

A hard-fought deal fixing a 2009 deadline for a new treaty to tackle global warming ran straight into trouble yesterday with the United States voicing "serious concerns" over its provisions.
As negotiators headed home after two weeks of intense haggling, the White House complained that the agreement did not do enough to commit major emerging economies such as China and India to big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
It underlined lingering division over how to confront the perils of global warming, which scientists warn will put millions of people at risk of hunger, homelessness and disease by the end of the century if temperatures keep rising at current rates.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who flew to the Indonesian island of Bali for a late appeal for flexibility, praised the agreement as a "pivotal first step" to tackle what he called "the defining challenge of our time."
With the deal, the summit of 190 nations launched a process to negotiate a new treaty for when the UN Kyoto Protocol's pledges on slashing greenhouse gas emissions expire in 2012.
"Last night in Bali the world community decided to take a bold step into the future," Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who came to power last month and swiftly reversed the country's previous stance by ratifying Kyoto, said in Brisbane. "But it's only one step and we've got a long, long way to go."
European nations and environmentalists broadly welcomed the move, although it did not go as far as many had wished by failing to specify any targets for slashing the emissions blamed for global warming.
An isolated US delegation had backed down during an unplanned 13th day of talks and said it would finally accept the deal, but hours later US President George W. Bush's administration appeared to take a step back.
The White House said any Kyoto successor treaty must acknowledge a country's sovereign right to pursue economic growth and energy security.