China wants rich nations to take lead in climate talks

BEIJING (Reuters) - China wants next month's international talks on global warming to focus on future greenhouse gas cuts by rich countries and moving more "clean" technology to poor countries, an official said on Thursday.

China is emerging as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from factories, farms and vehicles that traps more heat in the atmosphere, threatening to bring dangerous, even catastrophic, climate change.

Next month in Bali, countries will start what are sure to be tough negotiations over how to fight global warming. The United Nations hopes to launch two years of talks to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, whose initial phase ends in 2012.

The United States, the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has refused to ratify the protocol, which the Bush administration has called unfair and ineffective.

With China's greenhouse gas output set to soar, many Western politicians want Beijing to spell out its goals for limiting emissions growth -- something developing countries are not obliged to do under Kyoto.

But Song Dong, an official in the Chinese Foreign Ministry's section preparing for the Bali talks, said negotiations should focus on developed countries' responsibilities, not China.

"Now I think the most crucial task is to complete negotiations for emissions reductions by developed countries after 2012," Song told a news conference.

He said rich countries also needed to "do better in transferring (emissions reducing) technology so developing countries can afford it. That's one of our fundamental claims in the climate change sphere."

Song spoke at a briefing on China's response to a U.N. panel report summing up forecasts for global warming.