The October 6 informal meeting will come immediately after a climate conference in Moscow from September 2 to October 3, said Joke Waller-Hunter, executive secretary of Kyoto's parent treaty, the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The Moscow talks, held among scientific experts, will be hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is under pressure to submit Kyoto to the Russian parliament for ratification.

Under its complex ratification rules, the ambitious but troubled climate agreement must be approved by Russia in order to take effect.

"President Putin is expected to make a statement at the opening ceremony and there are hopes that in his statement he will give an indication of the state of play of the ratification of the Russian Federation," Waller-Hunter said.

Kyoto is the only international accord that aims at quantitatively reducing volumes of "greenhouse gas" pollution, the carbon byproduct of burning fossil fuels that is storing up solar heat in the atmosphere.

Scientists say this is causing Earth's air, land and oceans to warm slowly but steadily, with consequences for the climate system that range from small to catastrophic according to the future carbon levels.

The protocol's framework was decided in 1997, but it took five years to decide on its complex rulebook.

The agreement was almost destroyed in 2001 after it was abandoned by US President George W. Bush, who contended it was too costly for the oil-dependent American economy and unfair because it does not bind giant developing world countries to specific emissions cuts.

Waller-Hunter said the Rome gathering "is not a crisis meeting."

It seeks to "set the tone for the preparations" of a full meeting in Milan in December of Kyoto's signatories, she told AFP.

SPACE.WIRE