Washington:"Global warming may worsen droughts in water-strapped parts of the worldand lead to more rainfall elsewhere," said NASA.

Researchers at the US space agency compared historicalrecords on how changes in the sun's output affected climate on earth withforecasts of how a warmer climate, driven by heat-trapping gases, will changerainfall patterns.

"Rainfall could decrease further in areas such as thesouth-western US, Mexico,parts of North Africa, the Middle East and Australia,and it may increase across the western Pacific, along the equator and in Southeast Asia, "the study said.

Much of the Mediterranean area, North Africa and the MiddleEast are rapidly becoming drier and "if the trend continues as expected,the consequences may be severe in only a couple of decades," lead authorDrew Shindell said in a summary of the study yesterday (Feb 12, 2007).

The original research was published in the Dec 27 issue ofthe American Geophysical Union journal.

Shindell, a NASA climatologist, has publicly accusedofficials in President George W. Bush's administration of trying to suppressglobal-warming findings by US government scientists.

After critics accused him for years of dragging his feet onthe issue, Bush in January acknowledged climate change as a 'seriouschallenge.'

 He proposed steps toslash USpetrol consumption and the country's dependence on imported oil, but has notendorsed mandatory caps on greenhouse-gas emissions.