Liberals demanded Saturday that Environment Minister Rona Ambrose recall Canada's Kyoto delegation from Bonn, Germany, following reports the government is moving away from the climate-change accord.

Opposition environment critic Scott Brison also said Ambrose should resign as chair at the Conference of the Parties, accusing her of covertly trying to "sabotage the development of a binding international consensus on global warming."

"This is not only outrageous, it is dangerously duplicitous," Brison said in a statement. "Ms. Ambrose's actions risk irreparably damaging Canada's reputation at the United Nations and will compromise any progress at the Conference of the Parties."

According to documents obtained by the Globe and Mail, the Conservative government will oppose a plan to set tougher greenhouse gas emissions targets for developed nations in the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol, and wants to see the climate change agreement phased out.

The revelations were contained in private instructions provided to Canadian negotiators attending United Nations talks on Kyoto in Bonn.

Speaking to CTV.ca on Saturday, NDP Leader Jack Layton said the delegation should only be recalled as a last resort.

"Bringing the delegation back at first blush seems to be odd. I think what we want to do is instruct the delegation to do the right thing," he said.

However, he added that Ambrose "should step down from her position if she's going to act as a saboteur to the international work that needs to be done on the climate change crisis."

Layton also said he had spoken to the prime minister on Saturday "to urge him to intervene personally to try to get these negotiations back on track."

Ottawa seeking less stringent targets

Last week, Ottawa's public submission to the talks made it clear Canada wants less stringent targets for itself. However, the newly obtained documents reveal Canada will go one step further, opposing an expected plan to make phase two targets tougher than those in phase one.

Kyoto's second phase is set to begin in 2012.

"Canada will not support agreement on language in the work program that commits developed countries to more stringent targets in the future," states a line in the instructions from the Foreign Affairs Department.

The document also supports suspicions that the Conservative government is edging away from Kyoto, and is threatening to pull out unless major pollutants such as the United States are brought into the agreement.

The talks in Germany will last two weeks as members of the international community hammer out what Kyoto's second phase will look like.

Two sets of discussions are taking place in Germany.

One round of discussions is based on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The 1994 treaty involved voluntary commitments to address climate change, and was supported by 189 countries

The other round of talks are specifically about the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 addition to the convention that strengthened it by introducing legally binding targets for reducing emissions.

The protocol is comprised of 163 countries, but only Canada and 34 other nations accepted emissions reduction goals. Canada has announced it expects to fall short of its targets.

The U.S. plays an active role in the 1994 convention, but has stayed out of Kyoto.

The instructions to the Canadian delegation suggest the government has little faith in Kyoto as it now stands.

"Canada does not support a continuation of the status quo beyond 2012, and has no preconceived view on how a new commitment period might be structured," the instructions state.

The instructions also state a belief that major polluters must be involved, and the two current streams must be merged into one in order for the program to be effective.

And in the future, the agreement must be flexible in order to fit the different needs of the countries that take part, according to the instructions.

The new agreement "must include the USA and all major developing country emitters and allow for different types of commitments based on national circumstances. Canada would ideally like to see the two tracks related to the future converge into a single inclusive and effective approach and believes the Convention Dialogue has more potential for this."

The instructions also show the government believes at least two years must be spent on analyzing what has and hasn't worked so far, before the future of the program is discussed.

Canada considering other options

Ambrose said Canada is taking a careful look at what further Kyoto commitments would mean.

"Canada's position is that we support the two-year assessment period that is going to commence after the meetings in Bonn right now, and a number of countries are supporting that assessment period as well, and then we will, after that, decide whether or not we can make further commitments," she said when asked whether Canada opposes other countries setting tougher targets, according to the Globe.

Both the Kyoto Protocol and the convention are important, Ambrose said.

She said her department is looking into what it would mean for Canada to join the six other nations that have formed the Asia-Pacific partnership on climate change, but said it isn't an alternative to Kyoto.

Leaked documents tantamount to 'sabotage'

Critics say both the instructions to the negotiating team, and recent comments by both Ambrose and Prime Minister Stephen Harper about looking into joining the six-state partnership are tantamount to sabotage.

Steven Guilbeault of Greenpeace Canada told The Globe that the revealed documents will send a shockwave through the meetings.

"This is a serious diplomatic incident," said Guilbeault, who is in Bonn.