Negotiators reach agreement

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- As heads of state began arriving at the World Summit, bleary-eyed negotiators were upbeat Sunday about reaching a deal to tackle poverty and protect the environment.\n"We have absolutely no choice. We must deliver," Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said.\nA week into the 10-day conference, negotiators have been working overtime, trying to reach agreement on a plan to turn promises made at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio into reality.\nDiplomats said one contentious issue was resolved late Saturday, when negotiators settled on wording to address the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which the United States has refused to sign.\nThe agreed text says nations that have ratified Kyoto "strongly urge" states that have not done so to ratify it in "a timely manner."\n"This is very encouraging," said Danish Environment Minister Hans Christian Schmidt, whose country holds the EU presidency.\nEnvironmentalists also welcomed the agreement. Steve Sawyer, climate director for Greenpeace, called it "a tremendous achievement in this process because basically it doesn't go backward."\n"It's about the only thing in this text that doesn't," he added.\nNegotiators also reached compromises on trade that largely stick to language agreed to at a World Trade Organization meeting in Doha, Qatar. The main outstanding issue was whether to include language giving the WTO precedence over multilateral environment agreements, diplomats said Sunday.\nDelegates have now settled on more than 95 percent of the 70-odd page plan but key issues remain unresolved, summit Secretary-General Nitin Desai said.\nNegotiators, who worked until 3 a.m. Sunday, were back in closed-door meetings a few hours later to settle remaining differences over renewable energy, finance, trade and sanitation.\nThe European Union opposes language advanced by poor countries on eliminating agricultural subsidies, while developing nations have sided with the United States against setting targets on renewable energy sources.\nThe European Union and other countries are also pushing for a commitment to halve the number of people without access to sanitation by 2015.\nDanish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, representing the 15-nation EU, said the goal was feasible.\n"We have the technology and the talent, and I would also say we have the money," he said.\nBut the United States has resisted including any new targets and timetables in the action plan, arguing the way to get results is through concrete projects -- not paper agreements.\nThe United States also is at odds with many developing countries because of its insistence that good governance be a requirement for receiving aid.\nWith governments increasingly cash-strapped, the summit has emphasized the role public-private partnerships can play in alleviating poverty and protecting the environment.\n"We've all realized that governments can't do it alone. We live in an era of partnerships," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told government and corporate leaders at a series of "Business Day" events.\nIsrael and Jordan announced a partnership of their own, the largest ever between the two countries, a $800 million pipeline intended to save the shrinking Dead Sea.