"There have been attempts to draw large developing countries such as India and China into taking greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments which is not as per the Kyoto Protocol," the environment ministry said in a statement.

The 1997 Kyoto deal requires industrialised countries to reduce emissions of six greenhouse gases by 5.2 percent by a target of 2008-2012 compared with their 1990 levels.

The United States and Australia have refused to ratify the treaty.

Blaming industrial nations for the problem, India called for further commitments from them to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

"Developed countries should come forward and take further deeper commitments beyond 2012," the ministry said, adding India contributed only four percent to total global emissions.

US President George Bush said last month that he would urge rich nations at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm in Germany to join a new global framework for fighting climate change once the Kyoto Protocol lapses.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has invited China, India and other leading emerging nations to the summit.

Together, India and China will by 2015 produce more greenhouse gases than the US and Merkel has warned that a new pact to replace Kyoto would be doomed unless they signed up.

Both the Asian giants have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol, but are not included in targeted emission cuts.

Germany has called for a statement limiting worldwide temperature rise this century to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and cuts to global greenhouse emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Global debate on climate change has acquired a new urgency as the Kyoto Protocol, the only global agreement that sets specific targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, expires at the end of 2012.

Talks on renewing the deal are under way, with the next round scheduled to take place in Indonesia in December.

India said climate change would impact developing countries more and expressed concern over its fallout on its agriculture -- which employs nearly 70 percent of the country's workforce.

"It will take decades for us to reach the level of the developed countries of today," the government said.

"In order to meet the demands of rising standards of living and providing access to commercial energy to those lacking it, the total emission of greenhouse gases is bound to increase in India."

The ministry said more than half of India's 1.1 billion population still did not have access to commercial energy supplies.

earlier related report
Brazilian president rejects US climate change plans
London (AFP) Jun 04 - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rejected the call by his US counterpart George W. Bush for countries to sign up to US-led proposals on climate change, in an interview published Monday.

Lula told the British newspaper The Guardian that an international agreement must come within a United Nations framework.

Though Brazil is considered a key American partner in South America -- with Lula a centre-left counterweight to the anti-American socialism espoused by President Hugo Chavez in neighbouring Venezuela -- Lula said Brasilia was not informed that Washington was considering a new negotiating framework ahead of Bush's announcement Thursday.

"The Brazilian position is clear cut," Lula told the daily.

"I cannot accept the idea that we have to build another group to discuss the same issues that were discussed in Kyoto and not fulfilled.

"If you have a multilateral forum (the UN) that makes a democratic decision... then we should work to abide by those rules (rather than) simply to say that I do not agree with Kyoto and that I will develop another institution."

He branded Bush's approach as "voluntarism," relying on "coalitions of the willing" pursuing voluntary goals rather than binding commitments hammered out in global institutions.

"We cannot let voluntarism override multilateralism," he said.

Bush said Thursday he will urge major industrial nations at the G8 summit to join a new global framework for fighting climate change once the Kyoto Protocol lapses.

The three-day summit of the Group of Eight powers, in Heiligendamm on the German Baltic coast, kicks off Wednesday.

It brings together the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. Five rapidly developing major economies -- Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa -- are also invited as part of a wider grouping.

Lula rebuked Bush for seemingly sidestepping the UN and not taking its global responsibilities more seriously.

But he insisted he remained open-minded about talking to Bush.

"I will never refuse to discuss any idea, but we should respect the decisions made in the multilateral forums. It is the only thing we have all agreed on in a democratic way," Lula said.

"If the US is the country that most contributes with greenhouse gases, in the world, it should assume more responsibility to reduce emissions.

Meanwhile, on world trade talks, Lula said the Doha round of discussions were coming to a head.

"I think that this month something has to happen. If nothing happens, we will go into history as a generation of politicians that failed humanity, especially the poor," he said.

"If there is no agreement on (the) Doha round, it's useless to talk about fighting terrorism, its useless to fight organised crime because poverty is the principal seed for the growth of terrorism."

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