Environment Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi on Friday urged the United States to commit to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on global warming, saying that Washington's problems with the accord can be solved within the treaty framework, Japanese government officials said.

Kawaguchi told Kenneth Brill, acting assistant secretary of state, that she is concerned over the adverse effects on international climate-change negotiations of President George W. Bush's announcement last month that the U.S. was withdrawing from the pact.

Brill reportedly told Kawaguchi that Washington is reviewing its policy on the Kyoto pact at the ministerial level and will make an alternate proposal in time to influence the Kyoto process. He did not elaborate on what the proposal is likely to be.

Following Bush's announcement and the worldwide criticism it attracted, the U.S. has been preparing a new approach that would seek participation by developing countries as well as industrialized nations.