Staff writer Japan will formally propose later this month the creation of a new body to monitor industrialized countries' compliance with the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, government sources said Friday. The establishment of the compliance body will be included in Japanese proposals concerning compliance rules for the Kyoto Protocol, which will be submitted to the secretariat in Bonn of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the sources said. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted at the third Conference of Parties to the 1992 U.N. convention -- or COP3 -- in Kyoto at the end of 1997. The protocol sets legally binding targets for industrialized countries to slash their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other types of greenhouse gases that are widely blamed for global warming. The total volume of their greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by 5.2 percent from the 1990 level by 2012. The protocol specifically requires the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions during that period by 6 percent in Japan, 7 percent in the U.S. and 8 percent in the EU. At COP3, more than 150 signatory countries to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed to introduce mechanisms, including so-called emissions trading, to help industrialized countries meet greenhouse gas-reduction obligations. Under the emissions trading scheme, industrialized countries that face difficulties meeting their obligations would be allowed to purchase the rights to emit greenhouse gases from other industrialized countries that can afford to make deeper cuts than required by the Kyoto Protocol. The Japanese proposals concerning compliance rules for the protocol will include offering technical and financial assistance to help some industrialized countries in transition to market economies, such as those in Central and Eastern Europe, meet reduction obligations, the sources said. The proposed compliance body will check if industrialized countries are observing the protocol and will issue warnings against noncompliant countries, the sources said. The Japanese proposals will also include the strengthening of reporting requirements for industrialized countries on their reduction efforts as well as their acceptance of inspection teams, which are authorized to recommend policies and measures, the sources said. If a country fails to comply with the protocol after these steps have been exhausted, it may face suspension of its right to participate in emissions trading and other mechanisms, the sources said. But the Japanese proposals will not include the imposition of fines or stricter greenhouse gas-reduction obligations on noncompliant countries, as the EU is demanding. The sources said Japan objects to the EU idea of imposing fines because it would become possible only after revising the protocol itself. If the protocol is renegotiated, it would diminish the likelihood of it taking effect in the near future, they said. The Kyoto Protocol must be ratified by 55 signatory countries to the 1992 U.N. convention before it can take effect. So far only a dozen developing countries have ratified the document. No industrialized country has ratified the protocol because no agreement has been reached on the details of emissions trading and other mechanisms agreed upon at COP3. It is widely believed that an agreement on those details will be necessary at the sixth Conference of Parties to the 1992 U.N. convention, or COP6, which is scheduled for November in The Hague, to make the protocol effective by 2002, as Japan, Germany and other nations want.