China to attend climate change meeting

China will take part in a climate change meeting convened by the US government this week, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said today.

Xie Zhenghua, the vice director of China's economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, will be the country's representative at the two-day conference, ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

"We wish the meeting a success in promoting better cooperation between major economic entities ... to press ahead on the track of the UN (Framework Convention on Climate Change) and the Kyoto Protocol," Jiang said at a regular briefing.

The meeting, starting on Thursday in Washington, is the first in a series of US-led gatherings expected to focus on similar themes.

It will involve 16 major countries that produce so-called greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. Discussions will focus on ways to limit the gas emissions.

The 1997 Kyoto agreement requires 36 industrial countries to reduce the heat-trapping gases, emitted by power plants and other industrial, agricultural and transportation sources, by 2012.

Large developing countries such as China, India and Brazil are exempt from Kyoto obligations. They have argued that emissions reductions should not be allowed to hurt their economic growth and poverty-eradication efforts.

The US has also rejected the Kyoto pact, with President George Bush saying that Kyoto-style mandates would damage the US economy and should be imposed on fast-growing poorer countries such as China and India in addition to developed nations.

Instead he is urging industry to cut emissions voluntarily and is emphasising research on clean-energy technology.

The UN will hold its annual climate treaty conference in December in Bali, Indonesia, where the Europeans and others hope to initiate talks for an emissions-reduction agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.