CANBERRA, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Farmers in Australia's northern state of Queensland will no longer have the right to clear vast areas of native vegetation from Monday, in a move green groups welcomed as a huge victory for the environment.

Queensland was the last state to regulate landclearing for broad-scale farming. The destruction of native vegetation has been blamed for killing millions of native animals and increasing salinity of the nation's rivers.

"This is the biggest single environmental gain in Australian history," Wilderness Society spokesman Barry Traill said in a statement on Sunday.

"Until controls were put in place, Queensland was one of the worst hotspots for environmental destruction on Earth."

Australia, alongside the United States, has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions and the federal government has ruled out introducing a national form of carbon trading to try to cut emissions widely believed to cause global warming.

But Queensland's Premier Peter Beattie, who introduced the new bans on landclearing, said the laws that take effect from Monday would save his state an estimated 20 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year.

"Tomorrow is a very significant day for the environment," Beattie told reporters on Sunday.

"We will record in Queensland an environmental achievement of world significance and at midnight tonight, broad-scale clearing of native vegetation will cease in this state."

Queensland and neighbouring New South Wales state are major coal producers and the industry is an important export earner and employer. But both states have been under pressure from green groups to cut their greenhouse gas emissions from mining.

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