The deal came about only after last-minute concessions by the European Union to countries dubbed the "gang od four," Russia, Japan, Australia, and Canada. It sets the stage for legislative bodies around the world to ratify the global warming treaty beginning next year.

By far the biggest winner in Marrakech was Russia. With the United States having rejected the treaty, Russia's participation became essential. The treaty cannot go into force unless at least 55 countries that emit 55 percent of the world's greenhouse gases ratify the accord. With the US, which accounts for roughly a quarter of global greenhouse-gas emissions, out of the picture, Russia holds the key to reaching the 55-percent target.

Aware of its strong position, Moscow drove a hard bargain and got what it wanted. Just before the conference got underway, Russia demanded that its credit for storing carbon in sinks (forests and agricultural lands) be raised to 34 million metric tons, twice the amount allotted it under the Bonn Agreement adopted last July. Despite repeated assurances by Olivier Deleuze, the EU's chief delegate at the talks, that the Bonn Agreement would not be reopened, the EU gave in to the Russian demand.

In the end, the Russians got the best of both worlds: They became a major player in the Kyoto process and did so be extracting a concession that will lessen the treaty's economic burden on their country. What's more, the Russians became a linchpin in a treaty aimed at reducing the use of fossil fuels at a time when Russia is moving aggressively ahead with its own exploitation and export of oil and natural gas. According to the Wall Street Journal, Russia will export 4.3 million barrels of oil a day next year, up from 3.8 million barrels last year.

Japan, another heavyweight at Marrakech, walked away with a concession on the thorny issue of compliance. Tokyo strongly objects to the emissions-reductions targets laid down in the Kyoto Protocol being "legally binding." At COP-7, the Japanese succeeded in getting resolution of the issue put off until the treaty has gone into force. After that, ratifying nations will vote on the issue at the COP/MOP, a mopping up session to be held sometime after the World Summit on Sustainable Development set for Johannesburg in September 2002.

The goal of the COP-7 negotiations at Marrakech was to develop a "rulebook" showing how the treaty is to be implemented. It has long been recognized, even by the treaty's supporters, that the climate pact adopted at Kyoto four years ago was so vaguely worded that it meant many things to many people. It was one thing to require industrialized nations to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases to specified targets by 2008-2012. It was quite something else to figure out how this was to be done in a manner equitable to the industrialized nations covered under the pact.

However, the rulebook adopted at Marrakech leaves a lot of questions unanswered. For one thing, the rulebook doesn't contain rules but simply recommendations on what those rules should be. And because the rules are not to be spelled out, if ever, until after the treaty has been ratified, countries giving their imprimatur to the Kyoto Protocol still will not know exactly what it is they have just ratified.

The potential for confusion can been seen on the issue of compliance. Penalties are to be imposed on those violating the treaty, according to the package adopted at Marrakech. But no one knows what those penalties might be, much less how they are to be enforced.

Adhering to the time-honored COP tradition of putting off till tomorrow what cannot be resolved today, delegates at Marrakech managed to gloss over all issues that could have led to a collapse of the talks. In doing so they kept the Kyoto process alive even if that meant further diluting the goals of the treaty.

Though the treaty's supporters in Marrakech still expressed the hope that the US can be brought back into the Kyoto fold, the American delegation at COP-7 left no doubt that, for Washington, the global warming pact is not an option. Paula Dobriansky, undersecretary of state for global affairs, said the US was looking for a global solution to climate change, one that would be a "tapestry" of national and regional measures, rather than the single worldwide system provided by the Kyoto Protocol.

Absorbed with the war on terrorism, the Bush administration is a long way from spelling out exactly what these measures might be. Ironically, this uncertainty is matched by the those who gave their approval to the deal cut in Marrakech.

Bonner R. Cohen is a senior fellow at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va.