Delegates from 59 states involved in the trade in tropical timber have failed in a week of talks to reach a deal on a new international agreement to protect rapidly disappearing forests, a United Nations spokesman said in Geneva on Friday.
They agreed to meet again in February to review the International Tropical Timber Agreement (AIBT), adopted in 1994, and which expires at the end of 2005.
The aim of the agreement, to which 33 producer countries and their 26 major customers plus several dozen conservationist bodies are party, is to strengthen international rules protecting the forests.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
