Chinese and Japanese leaders sign climate deal

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signed agreements to co-operate on energy and environmental protection today aimed at repairing the countries’ frayed relations.

The environmental accord called for the Asian neighbours to work on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change by 2013, said Yukiya Iizuka, a Japanese Cabinet official in Tokyo.

The second agreement committed Japan and China to co-operate on developing energy resources, but Kyodo News agency said the accord did not mention the countries’ heated dispute over exploitation of natural gas reserves in the East China Sea.