Bush, Major Differ on Earth Summit Pact : Environment: The biodiversity treaty’s financial obligations worry President. Britain’s leader says problems can be worked out.

President Bush stood firm Sunday in his refusal to sign an Earth Summit treaty designed to protect plants and animals in their habitats, while British Prime Minister John Major expressed confidence that his country’s problems with the agreement can be worked out.

Appearing together after a two-day meeting at Camp David, Bush and Major aired differing conclusions about the proposed biodiversity treaty under consideration by participants in the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

With Major indicating that Britain plans to sign the document, the United States now stands isolated from its key Western allies over the issue.

Bush, who travels to Brazil on Thursday for a brief summit appearance, has come under increasing criticism both at home and abroad for the Administration’s opposition to the biodiversity pact and its efforts to soften a separate global-warming treaty.

“I have nothing to be apologetic for,” Bush said during his news conference with Major.

The President described the biodiversity treaty’s financial commitments as “too open-ended.”

“We do not have an open pocketbook,” Bush said. “I also have to be the one at this conference that is responsible for jobs and people being at work in this country. And I plan to fulfill my responsibilities in that regard while still taking a good, strong, forward-looking environmental message to Rio.”

Administration officials contend that the treaty could obligate the United States and other wealthy nations to provide unlimited financial support to help poor countries preserve endangered habitats. They also say it does not provide adequate protection of the patents and copyrights of biotechnology companies that develop new products from materials they obtain abroad.

Major noted that his country also had “a great deal of difficulty” with the financial aspects of the treaty, saying it seems “to call for very substantial commitments without perhaps some of the commitments as to how and where the money is going to be used.”

Yet the prime minister added that he believes it is possible to solve those problems.

While Bush defended his record on the environment, Sen. Albert Gore Jr. (D-Tenn.), who heads the U.S. congressional delegation to the summit, blasted it.

Speaking on Cable News Network’s “Newsmaker Sunday” program, Gore noted that U.S. opposition prevented strict deadlines and goals from being included in a separate treaty to reduce global warming.

“Every other country in the world wanted this,” Gore said. “We blocked it, and the reason is not that complicated. The biggest polluters have a back door into the White House policy-making process.”

In a reflection of the political tensions that are growing around the environmental issue, Gore’s accusations touched off a heated exchange with Michael R. DeLand, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, who also appeared on the program.

“I’m tired of seeing you seek out every soap box you can find to deliver this gospel according to Gore, which is nothing other than a trashing of the environmental record of the American people, a record that’s second to none in the world,” DeLand said.

Yet the Administration has not been without its own divisions. Last week, a new controversy erupted with the leaking of an internal memo from Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly, who heads the U.S. delegation in Rio, to Bush.

The memorandum outlined possible revisions in the biological diversity pact that might make it acceptable to the Administration. The leak was seen as an effort to embarrass Reilly, who had not been told that his suggestions had been rejected.

On Sunday, Bush condemned the leak, which some sources have traced to Vice President Dan Quayle’s office.

“I’d like to find the leaker, and I’d like to see the leaker fired,” Bush said.