In an apparent about-face, Russia signalled it might yet salvage the UN's Kyoto protocol on curbing global warming -- a pact that will collapse without Moscow's backing.
"There are no decisions about ratification apart from the fact that we are moving towards ratifica-tion," said Mukhamed Tsikhanov, deputy economy minister responsible for Kyoto.
Michael Williams, a UN spokesman for climate change, welcomed the remark.
"We are pleased to hear today's comments. We are confident that they will ratify the protocol at some point," he said from a climate change conference in Milan.
On Tuesday Andrei Illarionov, a top Kremlin economic adviser, said Russia would not approve the pact in its current form. Kyoto has been ratified by 120 nations but has been weakened by a US pullout.
The UN, hosting the climate conference of 180 countries in Milan, has expressed confidence Russia will ratify in the end despite the "mixed signals." Moscow's government previously said it would ratify the pact.
"I cannot comment on Illarionov, but we do not have any information in the government about the fact that a decision has been made," Tsikhanov told reporters.
The fate of the protocol, which aims to cut emissions of the gases that cause global warming, has been in Russia's hands since Washington pulled out of the pact in 2001.
It can only come into force if countries responsible for 55 percent of developed nations' emissions approve it, meaning Russia -- which emits 17 percent of greenhouse gases -- has the casting vote.
Countries accounting for 44 percent of emissions have so far signed up. It hinges on Russia because the US, the world's top polluter, has withdrawn its 36 percent.
Environmentalists, who dismis-sed Illarionov's comments as bluster before parliamentary elections on Sunday and a presidential poll in March, have welcomed Tsikhanov's statement.
"It certainly confirms all of the other reports that have been coming forward on Russia, that they're in the process of decision making," said Jennifer Morgan, the director of WWF environmental group's climate change program.
"We welcome the clarification and urge them to make their decision as soon as possible," she said.
President Vladimir Putin, who is will likely to have the final decision, shocked an environmental conference two months ago by retreating from previous promises to ratify, saying Russia needed to check if the pact would harm its economy.
Since then, Kremlin officials have said Moscow wanted guarantees from Western nations that they would buy Russia's substantial excess emission quotas -- something permitted in the pact -- if it does ratify the treaty.
It is not clear what was behind the mixed signals, although some analysts have suggested they were a tactic meant to wring concessions from the EU and Japan.
Most analysts say Russia stands to gain from the pact because its industry has collapsed since 1990, when emission levels were set, and it has large spare capacity to trade.
"After the US departure ... the economic effectiveness of the pact for Russia fell, but it does exist," Tsikhanov said.
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