Brussels, 06/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - The international negotiations on climate change (COP7, Marrakesh) enter their ministerial phase on Thursday (7/9 November). The environment ministers of some 180 countries will take over from the experts who have been in discussions since 29 October, attempting to turn the political agreement reached on 23 July in Bonn into legal texts. The issues that still need to be addressed mainly concern the interpretation of the agreement on carbon sinks and "sorting out the rules we all will need to play by, so the Kyoto Protocol can finally be made to work", as the Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström put it. She is leading the European Union delegation, together with the President of the EU Council, Olivier Deleuze. Mr Deleuze hopes that the negotiations will be successful (see EUROPE of 24 October, p.9) and allow the Protocol to be ratified by September 2002 by the requisite number of countries (55 countries that between them produce at least 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions). Ms Wallström shares this hope, but noted that she was aware how difficult it would be to achieve. In a press release, she said, "I am afraid that the talks in Marrakesh may again not be easy. There are a host of technical issues that need to be addressed, some of which have political implications. Some Parties may also be tempted to backtrack from decisions taken in Bonn. We would open a Pandora's box if we were to do so, and no citizen of any country would understand a failure in Marrakesh. We fought hard to reach the Bonn agreement and we should stick to it." Japan's announcement that it is intending to ratify the Kyoto Protocol is good news, but Russia's desire to press for further discussions on carbon sinks in order to win concessions does not bode well.