Beijing - The UN has said the planet's protective ozone layer would start to heal in the next few years, but non-government organisations condemned the world body for not moving faster. "The scientists predict that the ozone layer will begin its recovery in the next few years and will heal completely in the middle of the next century if we implement the Montreal Protocol faithfully," Mr Shafqat Kakakhel, deputy executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), told a conference. A reduction in the use of ozone-eating substances will allow the ozone layer to replenish itself.