Disaster Plan Talks Stalled

Negotiations over a disasters action plan stalled yesterday when the US demanded that references to climate change as a cause of natural calamities be removed from the final document.

Australia, Canada and the US requested changes in the action plan - aimed at avoiding another disaster like the Indian Ocean tsunamis which led to more than 160,000 deaths - to be adopted at the end of the week at the UN's World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan.

Citing differences in world opinion over the causes of climate change and the enforcement of the Kyoto Protocol, a US official said the demand for the changes was made to enable delegates to concentrate on mitigating the effects of natural disasters.

The EU is insisting that climate change be mentioned in the final document but talks failed to get agreement.

Aid groups were frustrated at the attempts to water down the document's language. "You would have expected a surge of enthusiasm after what happened in the Indian Ocean," said Sarah La Trobe, of the relief charity Tearfund.