BRUSSELS Actor and activist Martin Sheen yesterday criticised the Bush administration for not doing enough to fight global warming and urged America to "wake up" and catch up with Europe in efforts to cut greenhouse gases.

BRUSSELS

Actor and activist Martin Sheen yesterday criticised the Bush administration for not doing enough to fight global warming and urged America to "wake up" and catch up with Europe in efforts to cut greenhouse gases.

"We lack leadership. This administration has been lax; it's very upsetting. Europe is doing far more than we are," Sheen told the European Parliament, where he was to present a European environmental award.

The EU last month adopted an ambitious set of goals to cut carbon emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020.

It also agreed to obtain one-fifth of its energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar panels and hydroelectricity.

The 1997 Kyoto protocol, which has been signed by 35 countries, requires industrialised nations countries to cut greenhouse gases. George W Bush has refused to sign the protocol, saying it would hurt the US economy.

Sheen, 66, who starred as the US president in the TV drama The West Wing and in dozens of films, was among celebrities presenting the European Energy Globe Award for environmentally friendly construction projects that use sustainable sources of energy.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that New York City produces nearly 1% of the US's greenhouse gas emissions - an amount that puts it on par with Ireland or Portugal.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the study to assess the city's progress in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations network of 2000 scientists, warned last week that global warming caused by greenhouse gases posed possible catastrophic risks such as floods, disease, food shortages, species extinction and human suffering throughout the world.-AP