U.S. rejects German climate position: G8 draft

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States has rejected Germany's bid to get the Group of Eight to agree to tough cuts in climate warming carbon emissions, according to a draft of the communique to be presented to next month's meeting.

The blunt language of the rejection sets the scene for a showdown at the summit to be held at the German resort of Heiligendamm from June 6-8.

"We have tried to 'tread lightly' but there is only so far we can go given our fundamental opposition to the German position," the U.S. said in red ink comments at the start of a copy of the draft communique seen by Reuters on Friday.

"The treatment of climate change runs counter to our overall position and crosses multiple 'red lines' in terms of what we simply cannot agree to."

G8 president Germany wants the meeting to agree targets and timetables for steep cuts in emissions and increases in energy efficiency in transport and power generation.

A source close to the negotiations described them as "very tense."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, supported by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, wants agreement to curb the rise in average temperatures this century to two degrees Celsius, to cut global emissions by 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 and to raise energy efficiency in power and transport by 20 percent by 2020.

The United States, which rejected in 2001 the Kyoto Protocol on cutting carbon emissions as economic suicide because it was not binding on boom economies China and India, is adamantly against any binding targets or timetables.