1.   The goal is to write a legally binding treaty that would be signed in December by as many countries as possible.

2.   ...a legally binding international treaty that establishes who must pay for environmental damage.

3.   One of the two binding treaties agreed at the summit, this required states to take steps to preserve ecologically valuable areas and species.

4.   Under this binding treaty, states were required to take steps to limit the emission of greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide.

5.   At Rio, leaders affixed their signatures to binding treaties on global warming and biodiversity.

6.   But the chance of converting this suspension into a binding treaty is rapidly receding, in large measure because of unwise and unnecessary bargaining concessions by the Clinton administration.

7.   No legally binding treaties were presented or signed.

8.   Opposing a binding treaty are car makers and corn farmers, steel mills and oil refineries, electricity producers and the coal miners who stoke their boilers.

9.   Putin insisted that the terms of the agreement be formalized in a legally binding treaty, not simply agreed to between the two leaders, as Bush had preferred.

10.   That would be a pity, for the best approach to tackling this most global of problems must be through a binding global treaty.