Perhaps most significantly, the opening session produced fresh evidence that the deep-seated mistrust between North and South, exacerbated by the rich countries' acknowledged failure to honor the commitments they made in Rio, remains a serious impediment to solidarity.

In his opening address, South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is also president of the summit, spoke of the possibility that this meeting might be remembered as "a defining moment that will live forever as the midwife that brought into our world the child that humanity conceived at Stockholm and Rio de Janeiro and brought up during a period of gestation that has encompassed the UN Millennium Summit and other important international conferences held since 1992."

He said this summit must speak with "a strong and united voice that says, Now is the time to act!" It must, he said, deliver a message that "we are ready and prepared to be judged not by the number and eloquence of the resolutions we adopt, but by the speed and commitment with which we implement our agreements that must serve the peoples of the world. Nothing, whatsoever, can justify any failure on our part to respond to this expectation."

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said the summit's hopes are embodied in one word: responsibility. "Responsibility for each other-but especially the poor, the vulnerable and the oppressed-as fellow members of a single human family. Responsibility for our planet, whose bounty is the very basis for human wellbeing and progress. And most of all, responsibility for the future-for our children and their children."

But Annan also called upon the assembled heads of state to "face an uncomfortable truth: the model of development we are accustomed to has been fruitful for the few but flawed for the many. A path to prosperity that ravages the environment and leaves a majority of mankind behind in squalor will soon prove to be a dead-end road for everyone." Ironically, his words took on added meaning because of the setting of the summit-an ultra-luxe first-world enclave surrounded by shabby townships filled with poor people living in squalor-people who have seen no real improvement in their lives because of the Rio summit. In many parts of Africa, people have seen their standard of living fall during the past decade.

In his address, Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, acknowledged that "progress has been slow since Rio," but he called on the summit "to forge a fresh pact between North and South on the basis of trust and our shared goal of sustainable development. This pact," he continued, "is about growth, development, sustainability and solidarity." But Sam Nujoma, President of Namibia, lashed out at the European Union and Great Britain and accused them of worsening his country's poverty. He called on the EU to lift its sanctions against Namibia. And he called on the British to do something about the fact that they own 78 percent of his country's land.

As the ministers negotiating the text of the summit's "Plan of Implementation" document worked to resolve the last few remaining disagreements, analysis of the agreed paragraphs showed that the Rio principle of "common but differentiated responsibility" -of the rich and poor countries to protect the planet-had survived an attack by the US, but that other "Rio principles" have been watered down or otherwise diminished. For example, what had been known as the "precautionary principle" is now called the "precautionary approach."

A detailed analysis of the text by Friends of the Earth International gives it a score of 22 out of a possible 100. It notes that the text contains "no new finance or aid targets ¼ old ones are not mentioned, neither is any package on debt relief."