Heading the chorus of delight after the Russian cabinet approved the Protocol and sent it to lawmakers to ratify was the EU, which has been battling to save an accord mauled by a US walkout.

"This is a huge success for the international fight against climate change," declared European Commission chief Romano Prodi. "Today [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin has sent a strong signal of his commitment and sense of responsibility."

"It's a very happy day for Europe and for me," said Margot Wallstroem, the EU's environment commissioner. "It sends a very forceful signal to the rest of the world... It is also very much a victory for the European Union."

In Bonn, Joke Waller-Hunter, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Kyoto's parent treaty, said Putin had sent "an inspiring signal to the international community."

In a veiled warning to holdouts Australia and the United States, Waller-Hunter said Kyoto countries would enjoy an advantage denied to non-signatories.

"Accelerating the development of the clean technologies that will dominate the global economy of the 21st century will earn them a competitive edge in global markets," she said.

Klaus Toepfer, head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), hailed the Russian decision as "the first step in a long journey towards stabilising greenhouse gas emissions."

"I hope other nations, some of whom like Russia have maybe been in the past reluctant to ratify, will now join us in this truly global endeavour."

French Ecology Minister Serge Lepeltier said he was "delighted" at the Russian cabinet move.

"This decision marks a historic step in the fight against climate change and the greenhouse effect," he said in a press release.

There was no immediate reaction from Washington.

But Greenpeace International campaigner Steve Sawyer said US President George W. Bush, whose rejection of Kyoto in 2001 had brought the agreement close to extinction, was now isolated.

Friends of the Earth International's Catherine Pearce told AFP "It's fantastic news. It's great to hear it, and we hope it will not take too long for the Duma [Russian parliament] to ratify."

"It will put pressure on the United States and also on Australia, which are refusing to ratify," she said.

WWF's Jennifer Morgan reacted in similar fashion, saying the cabinet move was "a decision for which the world has been waiting for two and a half years."

An opposing note was sounded by Frank Maisano, a Washington lobbyist for the US utilities industry.

Russian ratification "is largely symbolic," Maisano said in a newsletter, describing the treaty as "meaningless, ineffective and toothless."

Japanese industry associations said they worried about the economic cost of meeting anti-pollution targets and some corporate figures doubted whether Kyoto was workable.

"It is questionable if the treaty, which commits only one third of the world's countries to obligations, will prove effective while the United States and China stay out of it," said Yuzo Ichikawa, executive director of the Japan Iron and Steel Federation.

China is a Kyoto member but as a developing country does not have to meet specific targets for cutting emissions.

Russia's ratification is vital for transforming Kyoto from a draft 1997 agreement into a working international treaty. Moscow had for years hedged on whether it would approve the pact.

The Protocol requires industrialized signatories to trim output of six "greenhouse" gases by 2008-2012 compared with their 1990 levels.

But by some scientific estimates, a massive 60-percent cut is needed to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.

Negotiations open next year on the post-2012 Kyoto targets, and fast-growing countries like India and China will be under intensifying pressure to join industrialised countries in agreeing to targeted reductions.

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