JOHANNESBURG, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien will keep the Earth Summit guessing about whether he will ratify the Kyoto climate pact rejected by the United States, his environment minister said on Friday.
Canada has been caught in the middle of a diplomatic row about the future of the anti-pollution pact ever since the United States pulled out last year. Chretien is due to address the World Summit on Sustainable Development on Monday.
"The prime minister will say that it is his desire to ratify, he will say it is his aim, his goal, his wish, all those words could be used ... But all I can tell you now is he will not say that we will ratify now," Environment Minister David Anderson told reporters in Johannesburg.
The agreement aims to cut so-called greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change. It was thrown into crisis on Friday when a Russian minister said there was a risk his country might not ratify the pact, a move that would effectively kill it off.
Anderson said he expected Chretien to make up his mind after more talks with Canada's provincial governments.
"He will reserve that decision until more consultations, that the provinces are insisting on, take place, and that will occur, we expect, within the next couple of months," he said.
If it ratifies the pact, Canada will have until 2012 to cut emissions from power generation, transport and other sectors by six percent from 1990 levels. Latest estimates show Canada's emissions had risen 20 percent by 2000.
The European Union and Japan have decided to stick with the agreement. But a complex vote-weighting system means that, following its rejection by the biggest polluter the United States, the pact cannot take effect without Russia.