Representatives from sixteen countries gathered Thursday in Washington to discuss voluntary efforts to fight global warming ahead of the December conference on the Indonesian island of Bali.

Once again the United States outlined that every country should be free to adopt its own measures in the fight against climate change, a statement that is in stark contrast to the binding targets set by the United Nations and European Union.

The meeting organized by US President George W Bush brought together high-ranked officials from rich nations and emerging economies like China, India and Brazil. All countries are considered to be major polluters and several have already adopted the same stance as the US, dodging binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Thursday’s meeting was one of the last preparations before the UN-sponsored Bali conference kicks off in December. At that summit UN member states are expected to elaborate a new pact that would replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

“We want this year's UN climate change conference in Indonesia to succeed,” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

The Bush administrations agrees with a long-term goal for greenhouse gas reductions that would be followed by mid-term targets set by each government according to the economic possibilities and several other factors.

However, the UN and EU officials attending the meeting reiterated that Washington mustn’t embrace voluntary approaches and has to set higher goals than any other country because it's one of the top polluters in the world.

Rice said the US solution to fight climate change is technology driven by the public sector, but underlined that each country has different resources and individual targets should replace the collective ones.

“Let me stress that this is not a one-size-fits-all effort. Though united by common goals and collective responsibilities, all nations should tackle climate change in the way they deem best,” she said.

If the UN and EU continue with their plans to impose binding targets to all member states, some will be put in a tight spot, Rice warned. Economies are continuing to develop and those nations would have to choose between a clean planet and economic growth, she added.

“This current system is no longer sustainable and we must transcend it entirely through a revolution in energy technology,” she stressed.

The Secretary of State admitted that global warming has become a primary problem for the whole world and that the United States is contributing to it as a major emitter. She said climate change is one of the toughest challenges for countries, comparing it to nuclear weapons proliferation, disease and terrorism.

Before the Washington conference started, prominent political figures and celebrities like former US vice president Al Gore and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger outlined the core issues of this challenge at a United Nations summit.

Even if Bush didn’t participate at the conference, he insisted that the two-day meeting held in Washington does not compete with UN negotiations and aims to complete them.