KYOTO (JAPAN), Dec 2: Europe and the United States, locked in a battle over how to impose legally-binding cuts on greenhouse emissions, entered global talks today. The two powers, which have taken centre stage at the 10-day United Nation Conference of 147 nations in Japan, looked forward to the arrival of US Vice President Al Gore to help budge entrenched positions.

``We have a tough job but we are going to get it done,'' US acting Assistant Secretary of State Melinda Kimble, head of the US team, said as the closed-door negotiations started. Europe's lead negotiators said Gore's presence in the Kyoto conference, announced by Washington on Monday, demonstrated the US commitment to the talks and they hoped it would also signal a softening in its hard-line stance.

Gore would be in a ``good position'' to help the US team over any last minute obstacles, according to Pierre Gramegna, the European Ambassador from Luxembourg who heads the delegation. He described tough-talking by the US President Bill Clinton and Gore, who is to arrive for the last stages of the conference, as negotiating stances.

Clinton said in Washington that the US would oppose any accord that offered ``something politically palatable, but that won't produce a result.'' The President said developing countries must be included in an agreement to cut emissions, a demand most other nations reject for the Kyoto talks, while accepting that poor countries can make commitments later.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.