Climate talks expose frustration at US positions

PARIS: The French host of climate talks among the world's biggest polluters said yesterday that the United States had backpedaled on promises to slash carbon emissions.

French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo welcomed the US administration's commitment to tackle global warming after years of reluctance under President George W. Bush, but suggested President Barack Obama has backpedaled on earlier suggestions of requiring deep cuts in US carbon emissions.

"We want to tell them, 'Yes, you can,' you can do a lot more," Borloo told Europe-1 radio a report card on the Major Economies Forum, which brought together the 17 countries that produce about 80 percent of global carbon emissions ahead of a UN meeting in Copenhagen in December on a global climate pact to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.