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WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. administration is working in advance of next month's summit of industrial country leaders to resist naming global warming as an urgent problem that requires aggressive action.

Drafts of a statement on climate and energy that negotiators are preparing for next month's G-8 summit in Scotland offer glimpses of the competing views held by the United States and the other seven countries that make up the group: Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.

All but the U.S. signed on to the Kyoto treaty on global warming negotiated in 1997 but rejected by
President George W. Bush shortly after he took office in 2001. The summit's chairman, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, was unable in a meeting June 7 to persuade Bush climate change should be dealt with more aggressively.

A June 14th draft of the proposed G-8 statement has brackets around disputed language, including assertions the impact of global warming already is being felt in Africa, small islands, the Arctic and other regions.

Bracketed portions include statements the world is warming, human activity is mostly to blame and developed economies must lead the fight against the problem.

"While there will always be some uncertainty, inertia in the climate system means we cannot afford to postpone action if we are to manage the risk of irreversible change," reads one sentence in contention.

Political pressure to delete that language comes directly from Bush administration officials, said environmental advocates who have talked with G-8 leaders' negotiators.

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