According to US special envoy on climate change, Todd Stern, the US is unhappy with the prospect of a legally binding deal, knowing that getting it ratified in the Senate would be an uphill battle.
The irony is that Australia's total contribution to global emissions is so small that even if it ratified Kyoto and shouldered all its costs, it would solve only 1% of the problem.
The National Assembly will receive the results, and it is widely expected that it will ratify them.
Also on Tuesday, Russia announced that it would ratify the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty intended to ease global warming -- a move virtually ensuring that the treaty would go into effect despite its rejection by the United States.
And it is worth repeating that the United States Government, since it ratified the Convention Against Torture, has submitted periodic reports that make explicitly clear precisely what we consider torture to be within the framework of our laws.
Legally the pact applies only in countries that ratify it, but its uses as a yardstick may be broader.
After the war it became apparent that Iraq had made far more progress than previously realized in reaching its goal this despite the fact that it had ratified the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, as had North Korea.
To reduce the public health toll from tobacco, the treaty obliges the countries that ratify it to adopt measures that the industry has strongly opposed, including bans on advertising tobacco products, requirements that all ingredients be listed on packaging and broader legal liability for manufacturers.
China announced today that it had ratified the treaty, but American officials said that did not change their position.
The largest union at United Airlines said today that it had ratified a contract covering more than 23,000 ground workers.
