JOHANNESBURG, Sept 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Negotiators at the Earth Summit on Johannesburg were struggling to settle a final point in a charter on the future of the planet Tuesday night, September 3, 2002, as the final day loomed.

The sticking point was an indirect reference to access to contraception and abortion in the 71-page draft Plan of Implementation, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Angry environmentalists said compromises on other points gutted the plan, but politicians defended it as the best that could be expected.

A pact to reduce the warming of the Earth's atmosphere took a step closer as Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov announced Moscow's intention to ratify the Kyoto Protocol "in the very near future".

The pact is designed to reduce the emission of "greenhouse gases", which prevent heat from radiating out into space, causing temperatures to rise worldwide, with resultant droughts and the melting of the ice-caps, causing the sea-level to rise.

Ratification by Russia will ensure that the pact takes effect, despite U.S. opposition to it.

"The Johannesburg World Summit will go down in history as a missed opportunity to deliver energy to the two billion people on this planet with no access to energy services, and as a failure to kick start the renewable energy revolution that is required to protect the climate," said a statement issued by WWF, Oxfam and Greenpeace.

"Nothing for the poor, nothing for the climate."

Oxfam's Andrew Hewett said of the political leaders, “Most of them lacked the guts and will to achieve a brave and far-reaching agreement that might have effectively tackled the problems of poverty and the decaying environment. It was within their grasp.”

However, French President Jacques Chirac said that despite limited results, he believed the summit was "a step in the right direction".

"The texts have a limited range, perhaps," he said at a press conference, "but they undoubtedly demonstrate an awareness, and an advance."

He acknowledged that the negotiations were difficult, but said he was more optimistic Tuesday even than when he arrived in Johannesburg Monday, September 2.

On Monday, Chirac said, "Our house is burning down and we're blind to it. Nature, mutilated and over-exploited, can no longer regenerate, and we refuse to admit it... the Earth and mankind are in danger, and we are all responsible."

The plan, which world leaders are due to endorse Wednesday, September 4, covers action for providing fresh water, sewerage and electricity for the very poor and slowing the planet's loss of biodiversity and depletion of fisheries and forests.

However, only a few of these goals have a deadline attached to them, and details about how they will be achieved - the funds, skills and transfer of technology - are sketchy.

The rich world is offering no new commitments on development aid, other than pledges made at a summit in Monterey, Mexico, last March, nor has it gone beyond vague promises to negotiate a deal for phasing out its farm support, according to AFP.

Nor does the blueprint make any commitment on further canceling the debt of the Third World.

A coalition comprising the United States and oil-producing countries shot down the European Union's demands for a timetable to give renewable sources a bigger share of the global energy market.

Representatives of big business said they recognized the need for corporate accountability but regarded national, not global, reporting as the way forward.

"The best form of rules for reporting is at a national level," said Richard Holme, deputy chairman of international Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD).

On progress at the summit, Holme said: "We are happy there are goals and targets that will allow business to plan ahead."

On the sidelines of the controversial world event, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz met UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to discuss U.S. threats to topple President Saddam Hussein.

"This is a crisis," Aziz told reporters afterwards. "We are preparing ourselves to defend our country."

However, he said Iraq was ready to cooperate with the UN Security Council in a hoped-for "magic solution" to the crisis.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa vowed not to expose his people to "poisonous" genetically modified food, being offered to aid some 2.4 million Zambians facing starvation.