U.N. says Canada silent over Kyoto targets

LONDON (Reuters) - Canada has not said whether it will breach the U.N.-sponsored Kyoto Protocol even though the country's new climate change plan is weaker than its goals under the international pact, the U.N. climate chief said on Tuesday.

Under Kyoto some 35 countries have to meet legally-binding caps on their greenhouse gas emissions by 2012.

Canada is way over target and its plans to extract oil from sands in northern Alberta, a highly energy intensive process, could deflect it further.

The Conservative government last week laid out new plans on tackling climate change which appeared to confirm it felt Kyoto was unachievable.

"It's not entirely clear to me how the two (sets of targets) relate to each other," U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said in a telephone interview.

"If a country signs an international agreement then I assume they stand by that agreement until they tell me otherwise."

"They've not told us they intend to back away from Kyoto."

If Canada did withdraw it would "certainly have implications" for climate change, de Boer said. Instead, the country still has the option to ask for U.N. help, or to remain a party to Kyoto but in breach.

Under its new plan Canada has committed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent on 2006 levels by 2020.