The Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Thurday, citing secret cabinet documents, that Harper planned to slash spending on climate change programs by 80 percent at the government department Environment Canada.

According to the same sources, other ministries would have portions of their budgets devoted to reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions cut by 40 percent. The reductions would help pay for tax cuts favored by Harper's government, the report said.

Harper, who has expressed disdain for the Kyoto Protocol, denied the report, telling reporters his government had "terminated a small number of programs that were scheduled to expire".

"In the last few years, Canada has spent billions of dollars on so-called climate change programs, and we have the worst results in the world," he said.

"We are 30 percent above the targets that the previous government committed to."

Last year, Canada was flagged in a UN report on global warming as high on a list of countries that ratified the accord to most likely run into difficulty implementing its commitments.

In 2003, Canada had increased its emissions by 24.2 percent from the base 1990 level, far from its 2012 target of a six percent reduction, according to the report published in November 2005.

Harper said his Conservative government would roll out its "own approaches" that will deal with both greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants, but offered no details.

The Globe and Mail newspaper also reported that the Conservatives also hoped to claw back some 260 million dollars the previous government had pledged to the United Nations to fund its international climate change programs.

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