- guardian.co.uk, Saturday January 20 2001 01.38 GMT
Colin Powell, the incoming US secretary of state, has asked for climate change negotiations to be postponed because Bush administration appointees will not be briefed in time.
The talks, which collapsed in December in the Hague, failed to restart during the last month of the Clinton administration despite meetings between the EU, US, Japan, Canada and Australia to try to find common ground.
The next scheduled meeting was to be May in Bonn but Mr Powell has said he fears that the new under-secretary for global affairs, who will replace Frank Loy, will not have time to "read himself in".
The new president has expressed doubts that climate change is a problem. But Mr Powell, who has overall responsibility for the issue, has indicated that the US takes its responsibilities seriously and has told EU officials that he wants the Bonn talks delayed for at least a month so that the administration can make a "constructive contribution".
