Romania is in talks with two Japanese companies on selling part of the carbon credits it has been granted by the Kyoto protocol, environment minister Laszlo Borbely said Thursday.

"Romania can trade about 300 million credits, worth some 1.5 billion euros, even at this time of crisis," Borbely said during a press conference.

Earlier this year the Romanian government had said this trade could bring it as much as 2.5 billion euros.

The talks with the two Japanese companies, which he did not name, could be concluded in three months' time, Borbely stressed.

He added that Romania was lagging behind in this field, as the trading should have started in 2008.

The carbon trading scheme was adopted under the Kyoto Protocol, which sets binding targets for 38 industrialized countries for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by five percent between 2008 and 2012 compared to their 1990 level.