U.S. slams critics at Earth Summit, page 1

The U.S. has been criticsed for Bush's absence from the summit

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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- The U.S. has launched a fierce defence of its record on the environment at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg, amid continued criticism from other nations.

Delegates from European nations, developing countries and environmental groups have attacked President George W. Bush for failing to attend the 10-day conference and criticised the U.S. for its stance on the environment.

Washington is also under pressure over its rejection of binding targets in the fight to cut pollution and poverty.

But Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, leader of the U.S. delegation, told the conference: "No nation has made a greater contribution and a more concrete commitment to sustainable development."

She added that the U.S. annual $10 billion donation to developing countries made it the single largest donor of development aid -- with an additional $5 billion recently being announced by President Bush.

U.S. says it is the largest importer of goods from developing countries, and American delegates have sharply criticised the U.N. forum for not pursuing what Washington calls "real action" in poor nations.

James Connaughton, Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying much of the anti-U.S. sentiment "is on the fringe of debates."

"The good of America's people is not being recognised," he added.

But U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Ohio, said the United States had to face its "responsibilities."

Business partnerships
The debate on business partnerships continued to rumble on at the conference.

Briton David Jones, spokesman for the non-profit Business Partners for Development, said incentives were needed for private businesses to ease their risks when putting money into the poorest areas.

But Antonio Hill, a policy adviser for the international aid group Oxfam, said that although a place does exist for private business in certain projects, such as improving water supply, it does not work in all cases.

"They are driven by profits, and the considerations they must make are not always compatible with a lot of kinds of investments that need to be made," she was quoted by AP as saying.

Partnerships in water supply and sanitation dominated the World Summit on Sustainable Development talks on Thursday.

Experts said the key to finding quick solutions is to think small and simple. About 1.2 billion people lack clean drinking water and two billion are without sanitation -- needing an estimated $180 billion each year to sort out.

A protest march from the shanty townships near to the plush, heavily-guarded conference centres is planned for Saturday.

U.S. officials laid out a series of partnerships with industry and private foundations in what they described as a "new approach to development" to address the developing world's most pressing problems, including energy, hunger, water, AIDS and forest management.

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