Officials said they recognized that the campaign to get nations to meet their promise made at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, was untimely as many countries focused on the U.S.-led war on terrorism, knocking the environment down the priority list.

"This pledge has not been complied with," Jose Carlos Carvalho, executive secretary at Brazil's Environment Ministry, told Reuters in an interview late last week, before heading to the summit. "The continent has to be united in demanding this commitment."

That is one of the messages the region will take to a global environmental meeting in South Africa in 2002, a decade after the Earth summit and accordingly dubbed "Rio+10." This week, regional officials will analyze progress made since the summit and will discuss their strategy ahead of South Africa.

Carvalho said only a handful of European nations had met the pledge. He hopes that Latin America's increased maturity and awareness of its environmental wealth will help it stand up to rich nations.

"Latin America has one of the planet's biggest environmental assets. It represents two-thirds of the world's tropical forests, a fifth of the world's fresh water and it is the planet's most biodiverse area," Carvalho said.

He acknowledged that the region's demands could fall on deaf ears if the U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan escalate and the global economy deteriorates. The South African summit could then be in danger of losing its importance.

TEN YEARS ON

Key issues at this week's meeting would include forestry, biodiversity, water, vulnerable urban environments and critical natural phenomena, particularly in the Caribbean, Carvalho said.

While some progress has been made, issues like global warming need to be revisited, particularly after the United States withdrew this year from the Kyoto treaty on climate change.

Kyoto was fundamental for Latin America, Carvalho said. "We house the planet's biggest environmental asset and Latin America cannot allow this to be jeopardized by climate changes that are not produced within the continent."

Carvalho said this week's summit would reaffirm the region's united support of an accord in which polluters could offset their emission levels by planting new forest.