SCENARIOS: Players and outcomes at Washington climate meeting

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States hosts a meeting of major economies on Monday and Tuesday in Washington to relaunch a process it hopes will help lead to an international pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Below are the players and possible outcomes from the event:

PLAYERS

The major economies include: Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States. Denmark, which is hosting the U.N. meeting in December to forge a pact that would take over from the Kyoto Protocol, was also invited.

HISTORY

Former President George W. Bush began the major economies forum in 2007, but the initiative was marred by concern among participating countries that he was trying to circumvent wider United Nations talks.

Environmentalists hope renewed engagement by the United States and President Barack Obama's push for U.S. leadership on climate change will result in a deal.

WHAT'S AT STAKE

The Kyoto Protocol, which caps greenhouse gas emissions, runs out in 2012 and leaders from around the globe will gather in Copenhagen in December to forge a successor treaty.

Activists say a deal must be clinched this year or there will not be enough time to implement it before the Kyoto pact expires.

POSSIBLE OUTCOMES

U.S. officials have downplayed suggestions of any major breakthroughs at the Washington meeting. They said participating ministers would discuss cooperation in areas such as technology as well as other issues.

But the event is the first of many that will culminate in a high-profile gathering of heads of state and government on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Italy in July.

The Washington meeting is meant to kick-start the major economies forum in general with the ultimate goal of facilitating agreement in Copenhagen in December.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, editing by Philip Barbara)