It will take the US beverage giant's Japanese unit at least 15 years to install vending machines without hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, across all the streets and lobbies of Japan.

The United States and Australia are the main holdouts against the Kyoto treaty, which sets targets for industrialized nations to slash their greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global warming.

By the end of the year, Coca-Cola will install 1,500 machines in Japan without HFCs, a coolant that produces greenhouse gasses.

As of 2008, Coca-Cola Japan will only buy next-generation eco-friendly vending machines, which are between 20 and 30 percent more costly, it said in a statement.

Coca-Cola said it and its industrial partners invested more than 30 million dollars over the past four years to build HFC-free vending machines.

The company estimated that by 2010 Coca-Cola will reduce greenhouse emissions by 70,000 tons from current rates across the world.

US President George W. Bush pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol as one of his first acts when taking office in 2001, saying the treaty was unfair as there were no emissions targets set for growing developing countries such as China and India.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.