Ahead of the 20th anniversary on Friday of the Bhopal poison gas tragedy, the global environmental group called on US authorities to ensure swift justice and adequate compensation for victims.

The tragedy occurred on December 3, 1984 after about 40 tonnes of killer methyl isocyanate gas leaked out of a pesticide plant operated by American firm Union Carbide, now owned by US giant Dow Chemical.

"Had this happened in the US, there is no doubt that Dow Chemical would now be paying for the clean-up that would be ordered by the EPA through litigation by local community groups," said Greenpeace legal director Rick Hind.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the US environment watchdog.

"What's happening here is nothing less than taking advantage of the differences in countries but also an example of environmental racism," Hind charged at a media teleconference on the Bhopal tragedy.

He said the United States was already recognising responsibility for cleaning up contamination at military bases outside the country.

Dow Chemical, which faces several legal suits from Bhopal victims but maintains it had no liability in the industrial disaster, should adhere to the "polluter-pay principle," Hind said.

"Dow at their own peril are resisting this liability, and responsible stockholders should remind them that we don't want to pay for the extensive contamination that will occur five, ten years from now as this litigation drags out," he said.

"Every day, it is delayed, the contamination and the suffering of the people becomes worse. It's better to pay up now and settle than to put it off to another generation or another set of stockholders."

Activists claim Union Carbide decided against including key safety features in its Bhopal plant to save money. Union Carbide, however, says the gas leak was likely due to sabotage.

Union Carbide and Dow "have still not cleaned up the site of the disaster or stopped pollution that started when the plant opened in the 1970s, meaning local residents are continuing to fall ill from drinking contaminated water," Amnesty International said.

An Amnesty report, "Clouds of Injustice," estimates that 7,000 to 10,000 people died in the first three days of the Bhopal disaster and 15,000 more have died in the years since. Another 100,000 continue to suffer chronic, largely untreatable diseases of the lungs, eyes and blood.

The Indian government's total death toll stands at about 15,000.

"There is a need for a universal set of legally enforceable norms to hold corporations to account to ensure their activities do not violate human rights," said Vijay Nagaraj, the author of the Amnesty report.

Gary Cohen, executive director of the Boston-based Environmental Health Fund, charged that Dow Chemical was a major source of many of the world's most toxic compounds, including the lethal Vietnam War defoliant, Agent Orange.

A class action suit is pending against Dow, Monsanto and the other Agent Orange manufacturers for massive related health damages, he said.

"Dow's story is one of corporate power brokering and lack of public accountability," said Cohen, whose group launched a book Wednesday "Trespass Against Us" detailing dozens of alleged violations by Dow Chemical.

Rajan Sharman, a lead lawyer for Bhopal survivors, said the US and Indian governments should take steps necessary to make Union Carbide face criminal charges in India for the disaster.

Federal detectives in India said this week they had decided to renew a request -- rejected last year -- to the United States to extradite Warren Anderson, then chairman of the Connecticut-based Union Carbide.

Anderson, now 82, was declared a fugitive by an Indian court for ignoring a summons after being accused of culpable homicide. He was allowed to leave India after paying bail of 2,000 dollars.

"If the government of India has chosen to resubmit the extradition request, then it suggests that the original request was denied probably due to a technicality or procedural difficulty," Sharman said.

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