Head of climate conference see movement in global warming debate

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The president of a major international conference sees some movement on ways to reduce global warming despite days of contentious debate.

''We are not just seeing sheer repetitions of earlier positions,'' Dutch Environment Minister Jan Pronk said late Wednesday. But he said if no agreement is reached on Thursday, he may put forward his own proposal in an effort to accelerate the talks.

Delegates from more than 180 countries are meeting in the Hague to decide rules for reducing worldwide emissions of heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming.

The conference hopes to reach consensus by Friday's close on the extent that countries should be able to use so-called ''flexible mechanisms'' to meet emissions reduction targets they committed to three years ago in Kyoto, Japan.

Flexible mechanisms include swapping credits with other countries and gaining credit for the carbon dioxide that trees and farmland take out of the air - methods that don't actually involve scaling back the burning of fossil-fuels in power plants, factories and cars.

A U.S.-sponsored plan backed by Canada, Japan and Australia would allow countries to satisfy part of their emissions targets by counting carbons absorbed from forests. Such lands are called ''carbon sinks.''

Some delegations say such an inclusion would not constitute an active effort. They want credits only for new changes. Others believe the U.S. plan, which proposes credits for more than a third of the carbon dioxide absorbed by vegetation, is too generous. The intention is to use such alternatives as a supplement to actual reductions from switching to cleaner and more efficient fuels, they argue.

The idea of developed countries being able to gain credit for creating sinks in the developing world is also contentious.

Carbon dioxide is one of the major greenhouse gases, which scientists say are gradually accumulating in excessive amounts in the atmosphere, forcing the planet to heat up. The warming is already starting to affect the climate, melting glaciers, pushing up sea levels and causing recent flooding and severe storms, scientists say.

The talks were disrupted Wednesday by protesters who burst into a negotiating room and staged a sit-in. In a separate incident, a woman pressed a chocolate cream cake in the face of the head of the U.S. delegation, Under Secretary of State Frank E. Loy, as he gave his daily press briefing.

The conference is a key event in the worldwide effort to try to stabilize the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by cutting global emissions to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels.