The ship had around 15 to 20 tons of oil in its tanks when it went down for reasons as yet unclear.

A spokeswoman from the Serbian Weather and Water Institute said inspectors were on the spot and experts had set up a floating screen to contain any oil spill.

"At the moment, instead of a 20 percent reduction we will achieve a 14 percent reduction," Blair told parliament after the government launched a review of its climate change policy.

"However, we have years to go before we have to achieve that target ?nd as we say today, we don’t accept we won’t meet it. We’ve got to make sure that we take the measures to meet it."

He added that Britain would, however, meet its more modest Kyoto protocol target of cutting emissions by 12.5 percent from 1990 levels by 2008-2012.

Blair has said he wants to make climate change a priority during Britain’s presidency of the G8 group of leading nations and the European Union next year.

Environmental groups said Britain needed to act urgently if it hoped to persuade other countries, like the United States, to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

"The government must make significant cuts in UK carbon dioxide emissions if Tony Blair really wants to lead the world in tackling climate change," said Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth.

The group called for more investment in cleaner power generation to replace ageing coal-fired plants as well as measures to improve energy efficiency and encourage less polluting transport options.

Britain is relying on a threefold expansion of renewable energy, greater energy efficiency and curbs on CO2 emissions from industry to meet its 2010 target.

Emissions fell in the 1990s as coal-fired power stations were replaced by cleaner gas ones, but they have risen in the past couple of years partly as generators burned more coal after a rise in gas prices.

Industry has been set limits on CO2 pollution under the first phase of the European carbon emissions trading scheme which starts in January.

If companies exceed their limits, they have to buy quotas from firms which undershoot their targets.

As part of the review, the government said it was considering its approach to the second phase of the EU’s carbon emission trading scheme which runs from 2008- 2012.

In October, Britain said it would increase carbon dioxide quotas for industry after complaints — especially from the power sector — that its CO2 reduction plans were too tough.

The government argues that its first proposal for cuts under the EU scheme was based on incorrect data and the new quotas will force industry to cut emissions substantially.

It concluded that alkylphenols, one of the chemicals that come up in water along with oil and gas from subsea wells, did not affect fish populations despite earlier research indicating that small concentrations could damage reproduction.

Jagger, who first became famous for her eight-year marriage to rock star Mick Jagger, shares the 2004 Right Livelihood Award with two others.

Russian human rights and civil liberties lobby group Memorial was also awarded the prize along with Argentine environmentalist Raul Montenegro, for his work with indigenous people and conservation of natural resources.

The award, founded in 1980, tries to compete with the prestigious Nobel prizes, set up in 1901 by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel who invented dynamite.

The Right Livelihood Award, worth 2.0 million Swedish crowns ($297,300) this year, was set up by Swedish- German philatelist and former European Parliament member Jakob von Uexkull.

Von Uexkull found the peace, medicine, physics, chemistry, economics and literature Nobels too academic and narrowly focused on the industrialised world.

He set up his alternative prize to recognise efforts to tackle pollution, poverty, human rights abuse and the danger of nuclear war. Joint awards are frequently made.

"Bianca Jagger has shown over many years how celebrity can be put at the service of the exploited and disadvantaged," the Right Livelihood Award Foundation said in a statement.

Past winners include Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, Britain’s anti-nuclear lobby Trident Ploughshares and Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathai, who will receive the 2004 Nobel peace prize in Oslo on Friday.

Now, with US oil executives busy laying the foundations for a huge gas import terminal on the shoreline beneath her home, she fears those days are numbered.

"It breaks my heart," she said of Sempra Energy’s project to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.

ChevronTexaco plans an offshore terminal nearby.

In a classic spat between big business and environmentalists, major oil companies and Mexico’s government say LNG could be the solution to North America’s power shortage. They say Mexico will benefit from a new and potentially more economical source of gas than US imports.

But locals in Ensenada, just south of the border town of Tijuana, are seething that foreign-owned gas plants will be plonked in their sparkling, unspoiled bays — home to rare fish, seals and sea birds and a key whale migration route.

A ragtag group of protesters gathers once a week near the Sempra site and is routinely ignored by oil executives driving by. Local newspapers are filled with angry editorials.

Many locals refuse to believe the gas will benefit Mexico, convinced the bulk will be piped north to energy-guzzling California, which imports around 85 percent of its gas.

"This will not benefit Mexico as they would have us believe, and we were never asked if we wanted it. We are worried about safety too. One fear is accidents, another is terrorism," Imana said.

A bustling fishing town on the northwestern edge of the little-developed Baja California peninsula, Ensenada — strategically located near the US-Mexico border — is nurturing a growing tourism industry that locals say will be shattered if the area turns industrial.

Eco-tourists come to see whales, paddle canoes next to dolphins or scuba dive in pristine waters that team with fish.

"One issue is the environment, the other is sovereignty," said conservationist Alfonso Aguirre who works preserving endangered species on Baja’s islands, like the Coronado Islands where ChevronTexaco plans an offshore gas terminal.

"In terms of size, our islands are twice as rich in biodiversity as the Galapagos," Aguirre said.

"The area is a jewel. Its vocation is small-scale fishing and tourism. To industrialize it is madness and these aren’t even Mexican companies so they won’t bring us any benefits."

ISLAND REFUGE TO BE BREAKWATER

The terminals will ship in super-cooled LNG from as far off as Asia, restore it to a gas and pipe it to power plants and factories in Mexico and the United States, where demand for power is soaring beyond what local producers can supply.

ChevronTexaco and Sempra say the environment will not be hurt and the gas will supply Mexico before the United States.

"This facility will be built to the highest recognized international standards for health, safety and environmental compliance," says Sempra Energy President and Chief Operating Officer Donald Felsinger on the company’s Web site, adding that half the imported gas will stay in Baja California.

"We will sell Baja every molecule it can buy," Carl Attah, ChevronTexaco’s Mexico vice president, said recently.

Supporters say that not only is gas cleaner and more efficient than other fuels, but that without LNG, Mexico will grow ever more dependent on costly US gas imports.

"These plants will help Mexico diversify its energy supply," energy undersecretary Carlos Garza told Reuters.

But opponents say that with nothing in writing to guarantee where the gas goes, wildlife is being sacrificed for corporate profits.

They say noise from ships unloading LNG will disturb wildlife a?d floodlights will upset nocturnal birds. They also fear contamination of the seawater used to warm up the LNG.

Locals say fishermen will be hit by exclusion zones, and the Sempra project, in which Royal Dutch/Shell is a partner, will trample on archeological remains.

Mexico’s CRE energy regulator has given Sempra permits to start construction and will soon decide if ChevronTexaco can build a plant using the tiny Coronado Islands, a refuge for seals and a dozen species of sea bird, as a breakwater.

That has also upset conservationists. "It costs $10 million to build an artificial breakwater. Is that all the Coronado Islands are worth?" Aguirre said.

Most Ensenada locals are already resigned to losing the battle over the proposed terminal.

"Every year from the porch we watch the whales come by frolicking with their babies. And at night you can see stars," said Imana. "The noise and lights will ruin everything. No more whales. No more starry nights."

It said Blair had held lengthy discussions with US President George W. Bush over a fresh initiative that would bypass Washington’s opposition to the Kyoto Protocol, which seeks to curb climate change.

The United States has not signed up to the Kyoto pact, which will go into effect in February after Russia ratified it last month.

Blair has made the environment and Africa his two top issues for next year when Britain assumes the presidency of the G8 group of rich nations.

"It is being given the highest priority," a Downing Street source was quoted as saying. "There is an awful lot of work going on in the background on this."

Blair’s spokesman later told reporters that discussions with Washington on climate change were no secret, and that the search was on for a consensus.

"We have always been involved in dialogue not only with the Americans but also with our European partners, with developed countries like Japan and also developing countries like China," he said.

"While we believe Kyoto is very important … we also have to recognise that Kyoto by itself is not enough to tackle this issue. What we have to do is push forward on the technological front … at the same time as not harming economic growth in the world," he added.

Environment pressure group Greenpeace said it welcomed any move to get America even to accept the reality of climate change.

"Too often we see Tony Blair standing side-by-side with Bush and not even mentioning what he has called the biggest threat we face," director Stephen Tindale said in a statement.

"On global warming Bush isn’t with us, he’s against us. It’s time the Prime Minister spent some of the political capital he’s amassed in Washington and demanded not just agreement on the science but huge cuts in US emissions," he added.

Petroleum demand is set to grow at an average rate of 1.5 percent to 27.93 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2025 from 20.45 million bpd in 2004, according to the US Energy Information Administration’s long-term forecast.

The EIA’s long-term forecast projected energy supply, demand and prices for 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2025. It did not include estimates for next year.

Imports from the Middle East, Venezuela and other foreign suppliers will grow to to 19.11 million bpd in 2025 from 11.78 million bpd in 2004, the statistical arm of the US Energy Department said.

Despite calls by many US politicians to cut US reliance on foreign oil, the US economy will import 68 percent of its petroleum needs in 2025, up from 58 percent now, the EIA said.

OPEC is expected to pump 55 million bpd of oil in 2025, 80 percent higher than the 31 mil?ion bpd it produced in 2003, the EIA said.

US crude oil production is expected to peak at 6 million bpd in 2010 and fall to 4.73 million bpd in 2025 as the nation’s mature production basins are tapped out, it said.

Non-OPEC nations will boost oil production to 65 million bpd in 2025 from 49 million bpd in 2003, the EIA said.

US natural gas demand will grow to 31.47 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) in 2025 from 21.94 Tcf in 2004 — a 43 percent increase, the EIA said.

Natural gas imports from Canada will not be able to keep pace, so US markets will rely on supplies from a yet-to-be- built Alaska pipeline and imports of liquefied natural gas from other nations, the EIA said.

Alaska’s natural gas shipments will rise to 2.2 Tcf in 2025 from 400 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 2003 with the projected completion of a pipeline in 2016, the EIA said.

Imports of LNG will rise to 6.4 Tcf in 2025 versus 400 Bcf in 2003, with new facilities to off-load tankers proposed in several Lower 48 states, the EIA said.

LNG is natural gas super-cooled to minus-259 degrees Fahrenheit, which shrinks and changes it to a liquid.

Coal will remain the nation’s primary source of electricity through 2025, accounting for about half of generation capacity, the EIA said. Natural-gas fired generation will grow to 24 percent of capacity in 2025 from 16 percent in 2003.

US nuclear generation will increase slightly, but no new plants are expected to be built because of unfavorable economics, the report said.

The structure of a typical PV cell. PV cells are electronic devices made from semiconductor material. The material most commonly used is ultra-pure silicon. The deliberate addition of very small amounts of impurity gives the silicon special electronic properties, creating material known as p-type or n-type material. P-type material is usually created by the addition of boron, while phosphorus will create N-type material.

At the junction of p- and n-type regions, an in-built voltage is formed. This is not a voltage that can be directly measured with a meter, but it does affect free electrons present in the cell. When light strikes the silicon, it will penetrate a short distance until it is absorbed. The energy of each photon of light either creates heat and / or energizes an electron which is then released and able to flow as an electrical current. The in-built voltage pushes the electrons towards the top contact, where they are collect. Likewise the "holes" where the electrons came from are pushed towards the rear contact. An electric current can then flow if a circuit is made between the two contacts.

Photovoltaic devices or solar cells are like generators that work in sunlight. They produce elcetricity without combustion. They make electricity without waste, noise or pollution. A solar cell is a solid state device in which there are no moving parts (except for photons and electrons) so nothing wears out.

The fuel is "photon". these can be thought of " as packets of sunlight ". That carries a phenomenal amount of energy to earth at a prodigious rate.

ENERGY CONTENT OF SUNLIGHT

Sunlight has an energy content of 1Kw (1000 watts) per square metre . The typical solar panel achieves between 10% and 20% conversion.

NATURES WARRIORS GOALS FOR SOLAR ENERGY

… is to place 50 times 200 watt solar modules on the roof of every new home in Australia /http://cybercentre.greenpeace.org/

The suit had been dismissed by the courts of two instances; the Court of Cassation reversed the verdict of t?e Court of Appeal on Civil Cases, sending the case for a new hearing by the Court of Appeal. The first hearing was scheduled for November 24, but was postponed because the Mayor’s representative was absence.

Although the representative of the Mayor’s Office was absent once again on December 1st, the rescheduled hearing took place. The Investigative Journalists of Armenia reiterated their request to oblige the Mayor’s Office to provide the journalists with the information in question. The organization’s chairman, Edik Baghdasaryan, asked the court to comply with their request in order ⌠to create a precedent for punishing an official for not fulfilling his or her duties.■ Upon hearing the arguments of the plaintiff, the court decided to allow the appeal in full and ⌠to declare invalid the negligent action by Mayor Yervand Zakharyan and to oblige him to provide the Investigative Journalists NGO with the decisions regarding land allocations in the public park surrounding Yerevan’s Opera House taken from 1997 to 2003.

European organizations▓ representatives shared their experience with the republic officials at a seminar held Wednesday in Marriott-Armenia hotel in Yerevan.

After looking through the calculations Europeans came to conclusion that political, not economic approach prevail in calculating minimal basket of goods in Armenia.

Armenian health ministry has worked out its own version of the minimal basket that differs from the existing one, according to which 30,000 drams are needed for normal nourishment.

However, it is clear this amount is too scant for that