¡¡¡¡TOKYO, Dec. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Japan on Wednesday welcomed Canada's ratification of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol for curbing global warming, which made Canada the 99th signatory to the pact, Kyodo News reported.

¡¡¡¡"We welcome the fact that Canada has become a state party to the Kyoto Protocol," the country's Foreign Press Secretary Hatsuhisa Takashima said in a statement.

¡¡¡¡Japan will continue urging countries to accept the pact as Tokyo considers it a quite important step to reinforce measures tocurb global warming, he said in the statement.

¡¡¡¡Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien signed an official document Monday to ratify the protocol.

¡¡¡¡Canada's ratification was formalized Tuesday when the United Nations accepted a document known as an instrument of ratification.

¡¡¡¡Under the Kyoto Protocol, Canada is required to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases by 6 percent below 1990 levels by 2012, Kyodo said.

¡¡¡¡The Kyoto Protocol requires industrialized countries to slash their greenhouse-gas emissions from 1990 level by an average of 5.2 percent between 2008 and 2012, it said.

¡¡¡¡The pact will come into force after being ratified by 55 countries representing 55 percent of industrialized countries' carbon dioxide emissions in 1990, it added. Enditem

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