Russia's lower house of parliament has ratified the Kyoto protocol on combating global warming -- a step toward making the international treaty legally binding.
The bill will now go to the upper house and needs the signature of President Vladimir Putin, who favors it.
The European Union welcomed the Duma vote and urged the United States to reverse its rejection of the protocol. But a State Department spokesman said the Bush Administration's position on the treaty remains the same and it has no intention of accepting the protocol.
Russian approval would make the Kyoto protocol binding. It requires ratification by industrialized countries accounting for 55 percent of the emissions that cause global warming.
The protocol requires industrialized states to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent from 1990 levels in the next eight years and penalizes those that fail to meet targets.