UK's Brown ready to attend Copenhagen climate talks

LONDON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was willing to attend talks in Copenhagen to broker a new global agreement to fight climate change, and said he would encourage other leaders to participate if necessary.

A new United Nations deal to combat global warming is due to be thrashed out in the Danish capital in December. Countries would be represented by their environment ministers unless other leaders take up Brown's suggestion.

"If it is necessary to clinch the deal, I will personally go to Copenhagen to achieve it -- and I will be urging my fellow leaders to do so too," Brown wrote in an article in Newsweek magazine.

Talks on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, have stalled because of disputes over how to share the job of cutting emissions and how much richer countries should contribute to help poorer ones.

Brown stressed the importance of reaching a deal in Copenhagen and how it could boost economic recovery.

"If we miss the opportunity to protect our planet, there will be no second chance some time in the future; no way to go back and undo the catastrophic damage to the environment," he wrote.

Brown said world leaders meeting at the United Nations in New York and the G20 should try to resolve differences on climate change.

"A strong agreement in Copenhagen is essential for global economic recovery," he said.

"A strong deal that establishes legally binding commitments to reduce emissions will provide the confidence and certainty needed to underpin low-carbon investment," he added.

Australia on Monday outlined a plan that would give India and China flexibility to lower emissions through a "national schedule", potentially taking some of the heat from near-gridlocked talks between rich and developing countries. [ID:nSYD460538]

The current Kyoto Protocol was agreed at U.N. talks in Japan in 1997. Then U.S. vice president Al Gore was the highest profile politician to fly in to push negotiators towards a deal.