The draft bill on Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) is scheduled for a vote in the European Parliament on Thursday after years of haggling and debate.

REACH is designed to protect people from the adverse effects of chemicals found in a wide range of products such as paint, detergents, cars and computers.

In the drive to get approval in the EU legislature, key political groups agreed last week on changes to reduce the number of substances in the low-tonnage category that would require tests.

"The Commission decided in favour of this compromise," Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen told lawmakers.

"We think that this compromise strikes a very good balance between the competitiveness, health and environment goals."

Environmentalists said the compromise went too far in accommodating industry’s demands and weakened the bill.

Support from the EU’s executive Commission, the original author of the bill with powers to accept or reject amendments, is crucial for REACH to move on in the EU legislative process.

The low-tonnage category applies to chemicals that are produced or imported in amounts of between 1 and 10 tonnes a year, estimated to be between 17,500 and 20,000 substances.

The package is expected to get broad support in a vote scheduled for Thursday despite dissent from the Greens party, which tabled a counter proposal.

Chemical makers would have to register the properties of substances with a central EU database. Those of highest concern, such as carcinogens, would require authorisation to be used.

CLOSER TO BECOMING LAW

The council of EU member states is debating its own version of REACH. Germany, which has Europe’s largest chemical industry, succeeded in delaying a decision among member states scheduled for later this month, but Britain still plans to obtain a deal before its presidency concludes at the end of 2005.

"We recognise we are very close to a deal and we still intend to achieve political agreement before the end of the UK presidency," Willy Bach, a minister in Britain’s Department of Environment, told lawmakers.

Verheugen said he hoped the outcome in parliament would spur member states to complete their position this year, too.

"I hope that this package will encourage the Council to adopt REACH still this year," he said, adding he thought there was a good chance it would be wrapped up by the end of 2005.

There are still outstanding issues, however. No agreement has been reached among lawmakers on the issue of mandatory substitution for hazardous chemicals, and the amount of animal testing required by REACH remains a divisive subject.

Environmental group Greenpeace said the compromise had diluted the bill.

"We are quite disappointed that the Commission is willing to water down and accept a watered down version of its proposal that will not give sufficient safety data on most chemicals covered by REACH," said Greenpeace policy officer Nadia Haiama.

She said she welcomed, however, signals that the Commission would support amendments that would require substituti?n of hazardous chemicals if alternatives exist.

Verheugen told lawmakers he did not feel REACH had been weakened or watered down.

France is the world’s largest winemaker, producing 5.8 billion litres (1.276 billion Imp gallons) in 2004, according to Onivins, the country’s state-run wine body.

Grape-based alcohol would have to be distilled before being dehydrated and turned into pure alcohol ready to be added to conventional fuel.

"We are now starting to look into it, but it is mainly the economics of such a green fuel that we are studying," Eric Bontemps, head of research at the cooperative wine institute ICV, told Reuters.

The alcohol yield from grapes was seven times lower than for sugar beet, Bontemps noted.

France produces 200,000 tonnes of ethanol a year, the third largest European output after Spain and Poland, largely from sugar beet or cereals.

"With an annual output surplus of 400 million litres, we could produce 40 million litres of alcohol to be potentially used in biofuels," Bontemps said.

"But with some research I think we should be able to increase the amount of alcohol which vines can produce, through distilling techniques for example," he added. "It could be worthwhile for struggling wine makers to do that as an additional income," Bontemps said.

Roland Courteau, Senator for the southwest region of Aude and a champion of the wine industry, last week urged France’s Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau to help the wine industry diversify.

"Regarding the use of wine surplus in biofuels, I consider this is a good idea," Bussereau said, adding that wine marc and dregs were already used to produce ethanol. Courteau said the minister agreed to set up a working group from December to study yields and types of vines. Other countries were making similar research, he added.

STRUGGLING WINE MAKERS

"French wine growers have been in a deep crisis over the last five years when consumption in France stabilised and exports started to drop," a spokeswoman at Onivins said.

Consumption in France averages 3.5 billion litres, exports 1.5 billion litres and around 0.4 billion litres are distilled to produce brandy, she said, adding that France did not have outlets for more than 5.5 billion litres.

"And because the 2004 harvest was at 5.8 billion litres we now have a stock of 4 billion litres which is a level we had never reached in the last 10 years.

"This year we had to distill 150 million litres including Bordeaux and Cotes du Rhone wines to lighten the market," she added.

Bontemps said the sector had to react. "There is no reason why sales should increase so we have to find other solutions."

Courteau said the crisis was such that vintners were contemplating ripping out vines, but he did not ?ant to see vineyards turned into wasteland.

"Also we can’t exclude the possibility that young wine producers may commit acts out of total despair because of the money they have borrowed for their businesses," he added.

Companies resumed drilling in the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea in early 2005 for the first time since 2001, after the previous government ended a moratorium on petroleum activity in the Arctic against protests by environmental groups.

A left-of-centre coalition took power in October after ousting a centre-right government in September elections.

"I am very pleased with the interest the companies are demonstrating for new exploration opportunities in the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea," Oil and Energy Minister Odd Roger Enoksen said in a statement.

"With this amount of applications, it is clear that the competition for acreage is increasing also in frontier parts of the shelf," Enoksen said.

The applications laid a good foundation for comprehensive exploration of frontier parts of the Norwegian continental shelf, he added.

The round also showed that the Norwegian Sea continued to attract many applicants even though that part of the shelf had been included in several comprehensive rounds lately.

The number of applicants in the 19th round was up from 18 in the previous round in 2004 and from 13 in the 17th round, the oil and energy ministry said after the noon (1100 GMT) deadline for filing.

The applicants included Norway’s Statoil and Norsk Hydro, international majors such as ConocoPhillips, ChevronTexaco, France’s Total and Royal Dutch/Shell, independents like US Marathon and minnows like Sweden’s Lundin.

The other applicants were: Amerada Hess, Britain’s BG, Norwegian DNO, Discover Petroleum AS, Denmark’s DONG, Italy’s ENI, Faroe Petroleum plc, Gaz de France, Japan’s Idemitsu, Norwegian Energy Company?AS (NORECO), Premier Oil, Norwegian Revus Energy, Germany’s RWE Dea, Svenska Petroleum Exploration, Canadian Talisman and German Wintershall.

The companies bid individually and in groups.

Norway had offered 30 blocks in the Barents Sea and 34 in the Norwegian Sea. Licences will be awarded towards the end of the first quarter of 2006.

Statoil and Norsk Hydro said they filed extensive applications for acreage, but did not disclose how many licences they sought or in which parts of the shelf — in line with standard practice.

"It is positive that the new government has decided to stick to the original schedule for the 19th round," Norsk Hydro said in a statement.

The referendum, if approved, would impose a five-year moratorium on the cultivation of any plant or import of any animal whose genes have been altered in the laboratory.

The measure would tighten controls already put in place in 2004 and give independent Switzerland one of the most rigid regimes governing the use of GMOs in Europe, including the 25-nation European Union that surrounds it.

Within the bloc, restrictions are specific to types of crops and temporary in nature, in contrast to Switzerland’s proposal for a five-year blanket ban.

The moratorium specifically bans Swiss agricultural production using GMOs. The use of imported livestock feed containing GMO material would still be permi?ted and research on GMOs, including for the pharmaceutical branch, would be allowed to continue under the measure.

The debate pits those who say that GMOs offer more productive, disease-resistant crops and livestock against those who fear possible environmental fallout or unintended consequences of manipulating genetic codes.

GMO DIFFERENCES

Switzerland’s legislative system allows for regular referendums giving voters a direct say in lawmaking.

Although not a part of the EU, Switzerland has not escaped Europe’s deep-seated and often bitter divisions over GMOs.

The bloc started an effective moratorium on authorising new gene crops and products in 1998. This ended in May 2004, when the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, issued an approval for imports of a GMO maize type.

A move by a province of Austria to apply a similar moratorium by becoming a GMO-free zone was rebuffed by the EU’s highest court, the European Court of Justice, in October. The court ruled that a regional GMO ban ran counter to EU law.

The EU has several laws to govern the import, use and cultivation of GMOs. If a particular GMO product is approved under one of those laws, that approval applies across the EU.

Swiss-based agro-technology firm Syngenta, the world’s third-largest producer of GMO seeds, said the measure – if approved – would have little economic effect on the company but would send the wrong signals about Switzerland.

"This has no impact on us today because we do all of our research in the United States," said spokesman Guy Wolff. "But it is damaging for research in Switzerland and especially in gene technology."

Switzerland accounts for roughly 1 percent of the firm’s trade in GMO seeds, which in turn comprises only a fraction of the group’s $7 billion annual turnover, Wolff said.

BWE said that the unhindered expansion of wind power which accounts for the bulk of alternative energy also derived from solar, biomass, hydro and geothermical sources may attract investments of 110 billion euros by 2020-2030.

"The ongoing expansion of renewable energy has been secured," a spokesman for the Berlin-based group told Reuters.

"The big energy utilities’ hopes of a return to a conservative policy have been shattered. Now they have to adjust and start investing more into modern, decentralized energy sources."

The coalition agreement unveiled on Saturday reaffirmed earlier statements that existing renewable legislation will be left unchanged up until a mandatory review in 2008.

The huge overall package paves the way for a grand coalition of Christian (CDU) and Social Democrats (SPD).

The SPD enforced pledges to expand renewables to a share of at least 20 percent of the overall energy requirement by 2020 although the CDU had only wanted to commit itself to an already realistic rate of 12.5 percent by 2010.

The SPD also secured control of the environment ministry which will be headed by Sigmar Gabriel, former premier of Lower Saxony state, a leading wind power producer.

A spokeswoman for the VDEW power industry association whose members predominantly represent conventional thermal power stations said: "Unfortunately, there has not been a change to the present (SPD/Green Party-led) policy. We’ll see if the coalition has the power to implement changes later on."

VDEW had lobbied strongly to change the renewable energy funding law (EEG) in favor of an efficiency-based quota system.

But the coalition deal means blanket support for the new techologies will continue to be borne by consumers who pay three times the market price of thermal power for green energy. Thanks to the push, wind power capacity has grown to 17,000 megawatt onshore (MW), making Germany the world leader. BWE said the 110 billion euros envisaged investments in new and old onshore turbines of 60,000 MW and 25,000 MW of offshore capacity in the North and Baltic Seas, which prior to the deal had been less likely to be made.

The FAO defines a forest as an area larger than 0.5 hectares where 10 percent of the ground is covered by tree canopy.

The Rainforest Foundation said this definition was far too loose. "Ten percent is just land with a few trees dotted around. They are exaggerating the area of forest," Counsell said.

The canopy of a tropical forest often covers almost 100 percent of the ground. Environmentalists say when this figure falls below 50 percent, the forest’s eco-system is wrecked.

But the FAO defended its methodology, saying it was almost impossible to gauge the degradation inside forests, and warned against excessive alarmism.

It said primary forests, which are areas undisturbed by humans, represented 36 percent of total global forests, with some 6 million hectares lost or modified each year.

"It is obviously very sad to lose this amount, but you should bear in mind that it represents just 0.4 percent of total primary forest," said survey co-ordinator, Mette Loyche Wilkie.

FAO said plantations accounted for less than 5 percent of all the world’s forest areas, while 11 percent of forests were official conservation areas — up 96 million hectares on 1990.

Migratory birds spreading avian flu from Asia today could also carry the plague bacteria westward from their source in Central Asia, Nils Stenseth, head of a three-day conference on the plague and how it spreads, told Reuters on Monday.

"Wetter, warmer weather conditions mean there are likely to be more of the bacteria around than normal and the chance of it spreading to humans is higher," he said.

The European Union-funded group has just finished analysing Soviet-era data from Kazakhstan which show a link between warmer weather and outbreaks of the plague.

This analysis was important as it had not p?eviously been clear whether warmer conditions encouraged the bacteria, fleas and rats to grow or killed them off, Stenseth said. Plague bacteria are often carried by fleas on rats.

"But if it becomes too hot it would kill off the fleas and rodents," he said.

Many scientists say a build-up of heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels is pushing up temperatures around the world and changing Earth’s climate.

KILLER BACTERIA

The plague — caused by the virulent, aggressive and mutating Yersinia Pestis bacteria — periodically breaks out in Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries and has been carried around the globe by fleas on the back of rats, birds and in clothing for centuries, Stenseth said.

"If you treat it with antibiotics in a few days it should be all right, but if you leave it any longer there is a 60 percent chance of death."

In the 14th century the plague killed around 34 million people and some academics believe it reappeared every generation, including the Great Plague of London in 1665- 66.

"The link is very important and it is also important to link it back to the Black Death in the 1300s because there were the kind of weather conditions then — warmer and wetter — that we predict for the future," Stenseth said.

"After 1855, when it (plague) reappeared again, there were once again similar weather conditions."

Scientists are still unsure why the plague originates in Central Asia. It has spread throughout the world, including recently to east Africa, and this is due at least partly to birds.

"Many, many bird species are spreading bacteria from one place to another, from one rodent to another, by carrying fleas," Stenseth said.

"That birds spread the bacteria is not in question but how important that is in the big picture is not yet clear."

Unlike the bird flu virus, which infects and kills domestic birds, plague-carrying fleas do not harm the birds that carry them.

Four hens found dead in a small village of Caraorman had tested positive for the H5 type of bird flu, the authority said, adding that the samples would be sent to Britain to determine if it was the virulent H5N1 strain.

"We have discovered four hens tested positive for the H5 virus in the village of Caraorman," said authority spokeswoman Alina Monea.

Monea said the village, which has no road access, would be quarantined and 2,000 domestic birds would be slaughtered. She did not say when the results of the tests would be known.

The Balkan state last month became the first country in mainland Europe to detect the deadly H5N1 virus in poultry in two villages in the Danube delta, Europe’s largest wetlands near the Black Sea.

Several migratory birds, which use the delta to rest on their way south, have also tested positive for the disease in the past month.

The H5N1 strain has killed more than 60 people in Asia since 2003 and led to the slaughter of millions of domestic birds as scientists feared the virus might mutate into a form that could be easily transmitted between humans.

Bui Ba Bong, Vice Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, said in an interview that backyard farming and live poultry markets in rural areas posed the greatest risk as they were most difficult to control.

He was speaking during a conference in Geneva held among 400 veterinary and health officials from more than 100 countries to draw up a global strategy against the H5N1 virus which has killed 64 people in four Asian countries so far.

Some $50 million in aid was needed for 2005-2006 and another $100 million by 2010 to step up control and detection measures on both the animal and human fronts, according to Bong.

"We need a total of $150 million from the international community and hope after the meeting to get additional assistance," he told Reuters.

Vietnam’s communist government would spend about $350 million, making a total investment of $500 million, he added.

So far it has received $10 million in technical assistance and financial support from bilateral and multilateral donors, including the United States, China and the Netherlands, he said.

Since bird flu arrived in Vietnam in December 2003, 92 people in the country are known to have caught the virus, fanning the fears of experts that the virus could mutate into a form passed easily between people and unleash a global pandemic.

Two new human cases in Vietnam, one suspect and one confirmed, have been recorded in the past week — signalling fresh transmission between animals and humans.

A 3?-year-old man from Hanoi who died on Oct. 29 after eating a chicken with his family was confirmed on Tuesday as the first human victim of the latest outbreak.

The victim had developed a slight fever after eating the chicken and was taken to Bach Mai hospital on Oct. 26 with respiratory difficulties. He died three days later.

Doctors said they suspected bird flu also killed a 68-year- old man in the central province of Quang Tri on Sunday, a day after he was taken to the General Hospital in Hue city.

"Our biggest concern is rearing practices in the country. Backyard practices are very difficult to control," Bong said.

HYGIENE STANDARDS

Vietnam has banned live poultry markets in big cities but small live markets can be found scattered across rural areas and slaughtering does not always meet hygiene standards, Bong said. "This makes it very easy for the virus remaining in the environment to be transmitted to humans," he said.

Bong said Vietnam had vaccinated 80 million chickens and ducks against the virus so far and it aimed to vaccinate 150 million by the end of the month.

This would mean 70 percent of the country’s flocks were protected, with higher coverage in high-risk provinces and less in remote mountainous areas in the north, he added.

"Seventy percent is sufficient for the whole country. The risky provinces will be 90 percent vaccinated," Bong said.

Vietnam has spent $100 million helping farmers cope with the disease. It has slaughtered 45 million poultry so far, mainly last year, giving farmers $1 per chicken, which only represents about one-third to one-half of the market price, he said.