Delegates at the UN-sponsored meeting lamented the refusal by the United States, as well as China and India, to sign the treaty aimed at reducing greenhouse gases.

The Kyoto accords, the world's most ambitious and complex environmental treaty, legally commit 39 industrial nations and territories, including Japan and Europe, to trim their output of six greenhouse gases -- especially carbon dioxide -- by at least 5.2 percent by 2012, compared with 1990 levels.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last month signed a bill confirming his nation's ratification of the protocol, giving the global climate pact the final stamp of approval needed to allow it to come into force on February 16.

But the list of signatories to the international pact does not include the United States, China and India -- all major culprits for the worldwide rise in greenhouse gas emissions.

China and India are experiencing a dramatic rise in their greenhouse gas emissions as a result of their rapid economic growth.

And the United States -- the largest producer of global-warming gases -- on Monday rejected any discussion of changing its position.

Washington's senior climate change negotiator, Harlan Watson, called any talk of a post-2012 regime "totally premature."

For the United States, any future treaty should not hurt the country's economy and should cover every country in the world, including developing nations, he said. President George W. Bush's administration rejected the treaty in 2001.

Delegates from 150 countries, along with 6,000 representatives from government, industry and non-profit groups, were in Buenos Aires for the UN-sponsored climate change conference, which runs through December 17.

While Washington continued to reject the treaty, environmental activists called attention to the perils of global warming by erecting an enormous "Noah's Ark" in downtown Buenos Aires.

Under a banner reading "millions at risk," protesters were planning to board the vessel to symbolize impending disaster facing mankind if more environmentally sound policies are not adopted by the world's industrialized nations.

"Global warming is here and is having the greatest impact on the poorest countries, where people are most vulnerable," said Juan Carlos Villalonga, of Greenpeace Argentina, which sponsored the protest.

At the conference, Argentina's health and environment minister, Gines Gonzalez Garcia, said climatic events linked to global warming have been seen in Argentina.

"In Argentina we have been carrying out a systematic study of those adverse effects, and the evidence gathered indicates that the problem is even worse and is speeding up at a faster pace than formerly anticipated," Gonzalez Garcia said.

The South American nation has experienced more frequent violent storms and tornadoes, a higher recurrence of floods, receding glaciers and a rise in sea level, he said, adding that the climate change poses health risks.

He said these weather patterns are "some of the signs confirming in our country that what were identified as possible consequences of global warming are already taking place."

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