Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard tries to convince members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to accept a pact for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, an initiative supported by the United States.

US President George W Bush and Howard want the annual APEC summit to end with a draft declaration regarding climate change and said “agreed aspirational goals” must be part of this pact.

China however doesn’t agree with restrictive conditions present in the agreement and said the United Nations should remain the main organization responsible for setting such targets for each country.

China’s President Hu Jintao said the APEC declaration should take in consideration differences existing between industrialized nations and still developing economies. Through his statement, Hu made it clear China won’t accept any boundaries imposed by the pact scheduled to appear on Sunday.

During his meeting with the Chinese leader, Bush will certainly try to convince him to adhere to APEC’s declaration and set new targets for China’s developed industry.

“I'm looking forward to discussions with the leader of China about a lot of issues, one of which is climate change,” the White House leader said. “In order for there to be an effective climate change policy, China needs to be at the table.”

The international community is currently searching for a new agreement that would replace the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, but countries like China or India hamper the efforts by refusing to accept binding targets on drastically reducing emissions of polluting gases

These difficulties come after Australia and the US haven’t ratified the treaty when it was proposed ten years ago and other blooming industries turned their backs on future agreements aimed at fighting climate change.

Both countries said the targets imposed by the Kyoto treaty would have a negative impact on their economies, adding that other major polluters like China, India and Indonesia are not required to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, a condition which represents a loose end.

Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand have also expressed their discontent over several points of the APEC declaration, urging Australia and other states to change them.

Despite these hurdles, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the opposing nations will adhere to this pact. Referring to a replacement of the Kyoto protocol, Downer said developing countries must play a key role in reducing gases contributing to global warming.

“Under the architecture that currently exists, the Kyoto architecture, essentially the developed countries ... make a commitment to mitigate their CO2 emissions, whereas developing countries, which include China ... don't make any commitments,” he said.

“What we are saying is that we would like the world to move from that position to a position where all countries make a common commitment to stabilizing and eventually reducing C02 emissions.”