The Climate Institute, which works to raise public awareness about global warming, said new research indicated the government had underestimated pollution from the burning of coal, oil and gas.

Prime Minister John Howard dismissed the analysis, saying the institute's data was incomplete because it did not include off-sets such as the reduction in land-clearing.

Howard's government refused to ratify the United Nations 1997 Kyoto convention on climate change but has boasted that it will be one of the few industrialised nations to meet its emissions target.

Figures produced for the Climate Institute by Energy Strategies, the same group which compiles emissions data for the government, found that increases in greenhouse pollution during the past two years were above official projections.

They show that emissions from the energy sector jumped by 22.5 million tonnes between June 2004 and February 2007 -- enough to put five million extra cars on the road.

Even using government figures, total emissions in 2010 would still be more than 110 percent of 1990 emissions -- above the Kyoto target of 108 percent of 1990 emissions by 2012, the research said.

"That means Australia is increasingly likely to overshoot its target under the Kyoto Protocol," the Climate Institute's chief executive John Connor said.

But Howard rejected the report. "Our advice is we are on track to either meet, or near as damn it meet, the 108 (percent) target," he told commercial radio.

The Australian prime minister, who has previously been sceptical of climate change and insisted that attempts to cut greenhouse gases should not hurt the economy, said the government will report on emissions to 2005 next month.

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