EPA Chief Rebuffed in Plea for Nature Treaty Changes : Earth Summit: White House snubs lead negotiator as his memo suggesting compromises is leaked to press.

William K. Reilly, the chief of the U.S. delegation at a global environmental summit here, was rebuffed by the White House on Thursday after suggesting changes to a biological diversity treaty to allow President Bush to sign the pact, knowledgeable Administration sources said.

The sources said Reilly, who had discussed the possibility of changes with Brazilian government officials, sent the White House a memorandum outlining possible revisions from the summit here this week. U.S. officials previously had said they would not sign the treaty because of objections to provisions on financing and patent protections.

Without informing Reilly of a decision on his memorandum, White House officials leaked it to reporters and said the Administration was rejecting his suggestions, sources said. Reilly learned of the decision from reporters.

The sources said they believe the memo was distributed by Vice President Dan Quayle’s Council on Competitiveness, which has long criticized the pact to conserve plants, wildlife and resources, and sparred with Reilly over environmental regulations in the past.

Reilly, who is head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was unavailable for comment. Sources said they did not know how he would respond.

Earlier in the day, Reilly acknowledged in an interview that he has experienced his “share of hard knocks” as well as victories within the Administration. He declined to say if he would want to remain on if Bush were reelected.

Reilly said in the interview that he has received several job offers outside the Administration, at least one of them enticing. But he said he has refused to even discuss them to avoid speculation that he was ready to “bail out” on Bush.

As chief of the U.S. delegation at the summit, Reilly already has been forced repeatedly to defend the President’s handling of various environmental issues before angry delegates from other nations and an often hostile international press corps.

The leaking of the memo is certain to compound his efforts to present the U.S. positions in a positive light.

Reilly had told reporters early Thursday that minor changes in the nature treaty could eventually enable the U.S. to sign it, although he described the possibility of resolving U.S. objections during the summit as “remote.”

“If you don’t have the U.S., you don’t have a treaty that works,” Reilly said.

“If the language that we find offensive were changed--and it takes relatively few fixes and removals of clauses to do so--we would support it. We have prepared specific language that would satisfy our concerns, and some other governments have it.”

On Wednesday, Reilly had told reporters that he was not encouraging efforts to reopen the treaty, nor was he aware of any such attempt.

Since arriving here Tuesday, Reilly has been in the hot seat because of widespread criticism of Bush’s failure to embrace such environmental initiatives as a global warming treaty with targets and timetables for reducing gases that contribute to the deterioration of the Earth’s ozone layer.

“I will try to rise to its demands and remain modest,” he said of the hostile climate. He added with a chuckle, “That won’t be difficult here.”

Reilly described his task at the summit as a “character building” experience, made more difficult by recent Bush Administration decisions to relax environmental restrictions in the Clean Air Act and in the protection of the northern spotted owl.

“You can say there is an unfortunate conjunction of a couple of recent actions that have complicated our message here,” said the 52-year-old Reilly.

The former president of the World Wildlife Fund had been working hard to repair the U.S. image, but with only modest success.

Wearing a tie sprinkled with trees and a green silk handkerchief in his pocket, the dapper Reilly bravely fielded questions from a critical international press corps on the summit’s opening day.

Queried about everything from the U.S. logging of its forests to its “excessive consumption” of natural resources and its tightfistedness on environmental aid, Reilly confidently defended the U.S. record by stressing its many parks, vast wilderness areas and strong environmental laws.

“We can only hope that the line on the U.S. will become tedious and wear a little thin over time,” he told reporters, reciting a string of environmental success stories in the U.S., including the removal of most lead from gasoline.

“Only now is the European Community beginning to get the lead out of its gasoline,” he said.

Widely considered to be the Administration’s strongest environmental advocate, Reilly commands the respect of environmental groups.

He has received some public support at the summit from conference chief Maurice Strong, who told reporters he believes the U.S. has been “unfairly” maligned. Reilly said other environmental ministers at the conference have treated him with respect and “sympathy.”

To appease public opinion here, Reilly has been promoting a recent Bush initiative to spend $150 million a year for worldwide forest management. On Thursday, he announced federal indictments against individuals for smuggling hazardous waste illegally into Mexico and a new Administration policy to limit clear-cutting, which is the complete removal of trees from forest tracts.

So far, none of these measures has managed to quell the criticism. Indeed, the forest proposals have been roundly condemned by environmental lobbyists as inadequate and even hypocritical.

“Reilly is making a valiant effort to move the White House along as far as possible while at the same time trying to be the President’s man to the world . . .” said Michael Oppenheimer, a senior scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund who is monitoring talks here.

“But it would be asking for miracles to make U.S. policy look good, because it stinks worse than a dead fish.”

ENVIRONMENT TALKS: Rio negotiators seek financing for environmental agenda. A15

Documents on the Table in Rio

Here is a look at some of the documents being drawn up at the Earth Summit:

The Rio Declaration: An outline of principles for environmentally sound development. Originally to be called the Earth Charter, it was renamed and made legally non-binding.

Climate Convention: An agreement on lowering carbon dioxide emissions believed to cause global warming. Intended as the summit’s showpiece, it was diluted under pressure from the Bush Administration and does not include targets or deadlines.

Agenda 21: A non-binding program of action for environmentally safe growth. It addresses issues such as toxic waste, the transfer of “clean” technologies, and what money will be provided to Third World countries for benign development.

Statement on Forests: A watered-down, non-binding version of a treaty to protect the world’s forests. Malaysia led opposition that blocked inclusion of a ban on the sale of tropical hardwoods.

Biodiversity: An agreement to preserve the world’s plants, animals and resources.

Source: Times wire reports