Frustration at the lack of visible progress at the UN's climate change summit here erupted yesterday with an attack on the head of the US delegation and an invasion of one negotiating session by environmental activists.
A young woman threw a custard pie at Mr Frank Loy, the US under-secretary for global affairs, as he was holding a press conference last night. Though the direct hit left his face, spectacles and clothes spattered, he continued speaking.
Recalling the words of John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated 27 years ago yesterday, Mr Loy warned against being "swayed by those who confuse rhetoric with reality, the plausible with the possible".
As an assistant stood by with paper napkins, he said: "I want to assure you that what we are very anxious to do here is `the possible', to recognise reality and make a deal, and we are looking for our colleagues to do likewise".
The conference president, Dutch Environment Minister Mr Jan Pronk, summoned representatives of all environmental groups accredited for the conference and told them they would not be admitted to any further press briefings.
Earlier, 20 militant environmentalists burst into one of the crucial negotiating sessions, forcing the meeting to be abandoned. Some 60 delegates had been involved in a "closed door" session on compliance with the terms of the Kyoto Protocol.
One of them said later that the protesters shouted slogans and unfurled banners before occupying the dais, from where they "talked endlessly". Security personnel were called and one table was overturned as they grappled with the protesters.
The two incidents were a departure in that all previous protests have been peaceful, such as one yesterday staged by five environmentalists miming jaded, yawning delegates "tackling climate change".
The standoff between the EU and US on the use of loopholes in the Kyoto Protocol was still unresolved yesterday. But the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said the EU was talking about "moving sufficiently" to secure a deal tomorrow.
However, he stressed that whatever flexibility was shown by the EU would not involve "giving way" on any of its basic principles, including opposition to the controversial US proposal to claim credits for its existing forests as "carbon sinks".
The 15 EU member states, represented here by ministers, are discussing a treaty strategy - in other words, how far they can go to meet US concerns while still retaining the "environmental integrity" of the Kyoto Protocol.
Mr Dempsey said that Ireland, Austria, Sweden, Greece and the Netherlands were pressing strongly for the exclusion of nuclear power from any "clean development" aid package to promote alternative energy systems in developing countries.
"We are determined that nuclear power should not be allowed in under any circumstances," the Minister said. While the US is expected to concede on this issue, environmental groups have warned it was just being used as a bargaining chip.
Some significance is also being attached to the undertaking of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who told the British Prime Minister at a meeting in Moscow this week that Russia's revenue from emissions trading would be used to fund "clean" energy projects.
Also yesterday, Mr Blair's deputy, Mr John Prescott, made it clear that he favoured a German proposal to install new flood defences to protect vulnerable cities and towns in England. These would involve erecting demountable barriers on key rivers.
