MONTREAL - A remarkably ambitious behind-the-scenes American blueprint for destroying Europe's support for the Kyoto treaty on climate change has come to light.

The plan which was pitched to companies such as Ford Europe, Lufthansa and the German utility giant RWE emerged as 189 countries attempt to agree the second stage of Kyoto at the UN climate conference in Montreal.

Put together by a lobby group funded by ExxonMobil, the world's biggest oil company and a ferocious opponent of anti-global warming measures, the plan seeks to draw together major international companies, academics, think-tanks, commentators, journalists and lobbyists from across Europe into a powerful grouping to destroy further EU support for the treaty.

The documents reveal how the so-called "European Sound Climate Policy Coalition" should work.

It would be based in Brussels and would have anti-Kyoto position papers, expert spokesmen, detailed advice and networking instantly available to any politician or company who wanted to question the wisdom of proceeding with Kyoto and its demanding cuts in carbon dioxide emissions that nations must make.

The blueprint was been drawn up by Chris Horner, a senior official with the Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute and a veteran campaigner against Kyoto and against the evidence of climate change.

One of his colleagues - who describes himself as an adviser to President George Bush -was last year the subject of a censure motion by the House of Commons after he attacked the British Government's Chief Scientist.

Mr Horner, whose CEI group has received almost $1.5m from ExxonMobil, is convinced that Europe could be "successfully" influenced by such a policy coalition, just as the US Government has been.

He believes Europe's weakening economies are likely to be increasingly ill at ease with the costs of meeting Kyoto.

And in particular, he has spotted something he thinks most of Europe has not yet woken up to.

Most of the original 15 EU Kyoto signatories - Britain is an exception - are on course to miss their 2010 CO2 reduction targets.

But under the terms of the treaty, they will face enormous fines for doing so, in terms of much bigger reduction targets in any Kyoto second phase.

These will prove unacceptably costly to their economies, Mr Horner believes, even if they try to buy their way out by buying up spare emissions for cash from countries such as Russia.

Mr Horner believes the moment for his anti-Kyoto coalition is at hand and has actively been seeking support for it from multinational companies.

In his pitch to one multinational, he wrote: "In the United States an informal coalition has helped successfully to avert adoption of a Kyoto-style programme by maintaining a rational voice for civil society and ensuring a legitimate debate over climate economics, science and politics.