UN panel says global warming man-made

Paris, Feb 2 (Reuters) The UN climate panel issued its strongest warning yet today that human activities are heating the planet and could lead to more droughts, stronger storms and rising seas by 2100.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said it was ''very likely'' that human activities were the main cause of warming in the past 50 years, or a 90 percent probability.

That was up from a ''likely'' link seen in a last report in 2001, or a 66 percent probability.

Following are reactions to the report: INDONESIAN ENVIRONMENT MINISTER RAHMAT WITOELAR: ''We should decrease CO2 emissions drastically by reducing pollution in cities and enforcing environment-friendly biofuel.'' ''Ageing buses should not run. Factories should follow emission policies. We will sue those who violate the policies.

It can take some time since there are a lot of factories. The penalty is the closure of factories.'' ''Rain forest should never be cut down at all. A major plantation that wishes to clear up a hectare of fields should plant two hectare within 2 years. This effort will eventually bring back our forests.'' AINUN NISHAT, COUNTRY REPRESENTATIVE OF INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE IN BANGLADESH (IUCN) ''Bangladesh will be one of the countries that would be the most seriously affected by global warming and sea rise.'' ''The impacts on Bangladesh would include increased level of drought, flooding and storms, especially in coastal belts, salinity and loss of land,'' he said.

''Millions of Bangladeshis will lose their land and homes, adding to the south Asian's country's plight of poverty and over-crowding.

HANS JOACHIM SCHELLNHUBER, DIRECTOR OF THE POTSDAM INSTITUTE FOR CLIMATE IMPACT RESEARCH, GERMANY ''With this report, any last doubts should be dispelled that humans are 'over-turning the climate screw'. Hence, we have a responsibility to correct this dangerous development by drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions.'' SHARON HAYS, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF THE WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY, HEAD OF U.S. IPCC DELEGATION ''This report is a comprehensive and accurate reflection of the current state of climate change science.'' President George W. Bush ''has put in place a comprehensive set of policies to address what he has called the 'serious challenge' of climate change....the current set of policies are working.'' STEPHANIE TUNMORE, GREENPEACE INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE AND ENERGY CAMPAIGNER ''There is a clear message to governments here, and the window for action is narrowing fast. If the last IPCC report was a wake-up call, this one is a screaming siren.'' REUTERS AB HT1438