WASHINGTON, April 3: The United States is opposing the reappointment of a leading US expert to head the UN’s top scientific panel on global warming and is instead backing a candidate proposed by India, US officials said on Wednesday.

They said the White House was dissatisfied with Robert Watson, current chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who has loudly spoken out on global warning and criticised President George W. Bush’s response to it.

“This guy (Watson) is up and we’re supporting the Indian candidate,” one official said.

“The administration is unhappy with Watson,” the official said.

The panel meets in Geneva between April 17-20 to elect a new 30-person bureau, including a new chairman.

A second US official confirmed a report in the New York Times that said Watson, the chief scientist at the World Bank who was nominated to the UN post by former president Bill Clinton, had clashed with Bush on a number of issues.

That official declined to comment further and referred questions to White House spokesmen.

Late Tuesday, the State Department issued a short statement saying that Washington was supporting the Indian candidate as well as nominating an American to be the co-chair of one of the panel’s working groups. The statement made no mention of Watson.

“Today (Tuesday), the United States announces its nomination of Dr. Susan Solomon of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as co-chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group I, and its support of Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, the candidate proposed by the government of India, as panel Chairman,” the statement said.—AFP