Argentina proposed this week that two "seminars" be held next year ahead of formal talks in November 2005 to address greenhouse gas emissions policy after the Kyoto agreement expires in 2012.

The European Union's representative here, Yvo de Boer of the Netherlands, said the EU was very favorable to Argentina's proposal.

But US senior climate negotiator Harlan Watson, repeating a statement he made earlier this week, said it was premature to begin post-Kyoto talks.

"We've participated in the past in a number of informal gatherings," Watson told AFP, adding that "they can be very useful" to exchange information about climate change.

But he said he opposed seminars that "would lead to a process of post-2012 negotiations."

The head of Argentina's delegation, Raul Estrada Oyuela, said the participants of the seminars will be exchange scientific information and "will neither be negotiating nor representing their countries."

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

Russia's ratification last month gave the protocol the final stamp of approval needed to go into force on February 16.

But the administration of US President George W. Bush has refused to ratify the treaty.

Washington's refusal to sign onto the accord is based in part on fears that it could crimp the US economy. It also believes the treaty's commitments should apply to every country in the world, including developing nations.

Post-Kyoto talks are expected to take center-stage when more than 90 environment minister from across the world come here for the gathering's last three days, December 15-17.

In an event organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on the sidelines of the conference, people from India, Nepal, Fiji and Argentina testified on the negative effects of climate change in their countries.

Anil Krishna Mistry, a conservationist from India, said sea water has invaded agricultural fields in the Ganges river delta, while Nepal's Norbu Sherpa warned that glaciers in the Himalayas were receding.

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