BERLIN -- A German government minister called on the international community sunday to put pressure on the United States at this month's Earth Summit in Johannesburg to do more to protect the environment.

"It must be made clear to the U.S. government at the summit in Johannesburg that its boycott of the Kyoto Protocol is unacceptable," Overseas Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said, referring to the international treaty mandating cuts in greenhouse gases. "It is an absurd situation in which the world's worst source of damage to the climate boycotts the international alliance to protect the climate and shirks its international responsibilities."

The 1997 UN protocol, the first coordinated world response to tackling global warming, requires industrialized countries to cut emissions of greenhouse gases to below 1990 levels by 2008-2012.

The United States dropped out of the agreement last year.

Wieczorek-Zeul linked the devastating floods in Asia and Europe this week to global climate changes. She said they should "open the eyes of those in the U.S. government" who deny a relationship between pollution and natural disasters.

"Climate changes are no longer a distant scientific prognosis but are becoming a horrible reality," she said.

According to official Chinese media, floods and mudslides have cost the lives of nearly 250 people in the last two weeks with the death toll expected to rise as torrential rains continue.

Central Europe has also faced the worst floods in memory in the last week, leaving more than 90 people dead and tearing homes and livelihoods apart.

The Johannesburg conference, officially known as the World Summit for Sustainable Development, is the follow-up to the First Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro where 10 years ago, representatives from 196 countries gathered to produce a model for sustainable development and environmental protection.

The meeting runs from August 26 to September 4.