QUITO, Ecuador –  Chevron Inc. says it has no intention of apologizing for the environmental damage to Amazon rain forest for which an Ecuadorean court ruled it responsible.

Attorneys for both sides have said that if had Chevron apologized, its legal liability of $18 billion would have been cut to $9.5 billion.

Ecuador's judiciary had set Friday as the deadline for an apology.

Chevron spokesman James Craig says an apology would be "a false admission of responsibility."

Chevron rejects an Ecuadorean court's February 2011 ruling that it must pay plaintiffs for pollution from 1972-1990 by Texaco, which Chevron bought in 2001.

Chevron has no assets in Ecuador, so the plaintiffs must to try to collect the award abroad.