But Mr Secrett said there were no binding rules to control what he called "predatory corporations" from doing environmental damage in developing countries. "It is all about voluntary business action and market expansion," he said.
The summit is billed by the United Nations as the biggest conference in history, with up to 100 heads of state and 60,000 delegates expected to attend. But with the summit due to officially start this morning, only 20,000 delegates have registered so far.
Non-government organisations and protest groups have called on South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki to stand up to the US and EU to safeguard the environment of developing countries. But he is more likely to be watching reaction to a demonstration outside the conference today by black Zimbabweans living in South Africa. They are demanding that Pretoria impose sanctions against the Government of President Robert Mugabe.
Although there are no official figures, between 1 and 2 million economic refugees from Zimbabwe are estimated to live and work in South Africa. Their presence is putting pressure on Pretoria, with South African workers claiming the immigrants are taking their jobs. Britain's Foreign Minister, Jack Straw, yesterday said Mr Mugabe's land reform policies were reducing his people to starvation. But Mr Straw, writing in The Observer newspaper, said criticism of Mr Mugabe should not dominate the summit.
Britain's Conservative opposition has called on the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who is due to address the summit an hour before Mr Mugabe, to boycott the Zimbabwean leader's speech. Facing international criticism for expelling white farmers from their land, Mr Mugabe retained his most loyal ministers in a surprise cabinet reshuffle on Friday, the official Sunday Mail newspaper said. It said the ministers retained included the Agriculture Minister, Joseph Made, who is in charge of the land seizure program, the Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, and the Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo.***
The MoD said the exercise was "absolutely not" connected to the situation in Zimbabwe. "This is a long-planned air concentration exercise, the first of a series of trials that will be taking place twice a year," a spokesman said. The Foreign Office last night played down any connection between the dispatch of the troops and the crisis in Zimbabwe. "We keep contingency plans up to date for most parts of the world, but we are not moving to implement any such plans for Zimbabwe," said a spokesman. "A large-scale military operation does not fit in with what we estimate is required. If it were needed, there are contingency plans and they could be implemented in a short time."
But defence officials said the paratroopers were part of the contingency plans and would be ideally placed if troops were needed for a defensive escort for any evacuation. "There is a lack of willingness by UK Plc to get involved because any intervention will be bloody and if we are forced to go in, it will not be easy," said one official. "Zimbabwe is a well-armed country. "But if the war veterans start to evict farmers and there is mass slaughter of UK nationals we will be forced to intervene." Military planners at Northwood were putting the final touches to an evacuation operation which could require British troops to go in for a very brief period "possibly just 24 hours", the officials said. "The obvious evacuation route is by road, but they could easily block this and we must therefore plan for an air intervention as we did in Sierra Leone two years ago."
The paratroopers would support the SAS in providing a defensive ring for an operation known as a rapid air landing, in which RAF transports would fly into Harare airport to take out the Britons. They would be escorted by Tornado ground attack aircraft and in the second phase of the evacuation the Britons would be flown out in a so-called tactical air land operation.***