"Canada never has to tear the United States down to build itself up," Wilkins said in a speech to the Canadian Club in Ottawa.

"It may be smart election-year politics to thump your chest and criticize your friend and your number one trading partner constantly," he said.

"But it is a slippery slope, and all of us should hope that it doesn't have a long-term impact on the relationship."

Wilkins also chastized Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin for comments he made last week at a UN climate change conference in Montreal criticizing US environmental policies.

Martin dressed down the United States, which was threatening to boycott future multilateral pacts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, as a means of shoring up domestic support ahead of a January 23 election.

He told conference delegates: "To all those countries that are still reticent, including the United States, I want to say this: We have a global conscience and now is time to listen to that conscience."

Wilkins countered that the United States is reducing its emissions and spending more money to tackle climate change than any other country, including some 20 billion US dollars in the last five years.

"I would respectfully submit to you that when it comes to a 'global conscience,' the United States is walking the walk," Wilkins said.

Martin, on the campaign trail in western Canada, quickly dismissed the ambassador's comments.

"I have not made the United States a target in this campaign," Martin said.

"Let me simply say to anyone who wants to question what I have been saying ... that I am the prime minister of this country, that our position on climate change will be determined by the government of Canada, that the fact is that we do expect our partners to honour their agreements," he said.

Martin added that having good relations with Canada's southern neighbor does not mean having to "concede everything."

Source: Agence France-Presse

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