Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Saturday urged major greenhouse gas-emitting countries that are not members of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change to take action to save the world from the threats of global warming.
"We must ask major greenhouse gas-emitting nations that have not taken part in the Kyoto Protocol to take leadership roles," he told an international conference on the protection of the global environment.
Koizumi was apparently referring to the United States, which signed the protocol but later refused to ratify it, and China, which has not participated in the pact.
Industrialized countries are required to cut their carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions between 2008 and 2012 by an average of 5.2 percent over 1990 levels under the Kyoto Protocol, which took effect in February.