Environmental Activists Protest President Bush's Kyoto Pact Veto

Greenpeace activists boarded an oil tanker in Norway on Tuesday in a bid to stop it sailing for the United States, in their second such protest this week against President George W. Bush's rejection of the Kyoto pact on cutting greenhouse gases.

Fifteen protesters boarded the Greek-registered tanker Cosmic from the dock before it could leave the Statoil Mongstad terminal in Norway for a Sunoco terminal on the U.S. East Coast, the Amsterdam-based environmental group said. Activists perched on two of the ship's anchors hanging above the water line while four inflatables surrounded the ship, according to a Greenpeace campaigner. The group also hung a banner reading "Stop oil to Bush - ratify Kyoto". On Monday, Bush reiterated his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol, which calls for industrialized countries to reduce output of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, in an effort to slow global warming.

Activists from the environmental group occupied a Norwegian-owned tanker off the French port at Le Havre on Sunday, temporarily preventing it from delivering a cargo of oil from the U.S.

The protests were timed to coincide with Bush's first official visit to Europe. Bush arrived in Spain on Tuesday and will travel to Belgium, Sweden, Poland and Slovenia.

A Greenpeace climate change campaigner in Amsterdam said the group would continue to target U.S. oil shipments to highlight the U.S. dependence on fossil fuels, which have been blamed for contributing to climate change.