It would be the first time that the G8 has faced a "split" communique in which leaders from seven countries agree to a statement without the US leader endorsing it, the Guardian newspaper said, quoting cabinet colleagues.

The colleagues described Blair as showing great courage in standing by his position on fighting global warming, despite being advised that it is "a very dangerous thing to do politically" because the outcome was uncertain.

Blair, a close ally of Bush, wants to make climate change one of the dominant themes of the summit attended by French President Jacques Chirac, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

With the exception of the United States, all of these countries have ratified the Kyoto Protocol targeting the issue of reducing greenhouse gases said to be responsible for global warming.

The Guardian said it obtained a leaked copy of the disputed text on climate change that was to be presented at the G8 at the Gleneagles golf resort in Scotland on July 6-8.

It said the United States objects to the following words: "Climate change is a serious and long-term challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the globe. There is now strong evidence that significant global warming is occurring and that human activity is contributing to this warming."

All the G8 nations, it said, accept the following sentence: "Global energy demands are expected to grow by 60 percent over the next 25 years. This has the potential to cause a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions associated with climate change."

However, the next sentence is also disputed by the United States, the Guardian said.

"But we know that we need to slow, stop and then reverse the growth in greenhouse gases to reduce our exposure to potentially serious economic, environmental and security risks."

All rights reserved. � 2004 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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