A top Environment Ministry official lashed out Thursday at opposition by the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) to a ministry plan to introduce an environmental tax in 2005.

"If Keidanren officials say they cannot accept the proposed tax, what other steps would they come up with to achieve the goals set in the Kyoto Protocol?" Vice Environment Minister Shigeru Sumitani asked at a news conference.

Sumitani made the comments after the nation's most powerful business lobby voiced opposition to the tax Wednesday, saying it would hollow out industry and cool the budding economic recovery.

Sumitani also criticized Nippon Keidanren's claim that Japan can significantly reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions through technological development.

"Do they believe they can really make it only through such measures?" he asked.

Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol for curbing global warming, Japan is required to cut carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.

But because emissions in fiscal 2000 increased 8 percent over the 1990 level, the Environment Ministry considers it necessary to introduce a new tax, possibly in fiscal 2005, on fossil fuels that generate greenhouse gases.

During talks with Environment Minister Yuriko Koike on Tuesday, Nippon Keidanren officials argued the international community requires a new multilateral framework on stopping global warming.