UNITED NATIONS - UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday welcomed US President George W. Bush's call on leaders of the world's major economies to join him in agreeing a global target to reduce carbon emissions.
"It is a positive statement in the sense that the United States at the level of President Bush has realized the urgency and importance of this climate change," he told reporters.
Ban expressed hope that initiatives by Bush and other world leaders to reduce global warming would be discussed within the framework of the United Nations.
Bush said in a speech Thursday that he would urge major industrialized nations at a summit next week to join a new global framework for fighting climate change after the Kyoto Protocol lapses.
The conference on the Indonesian island of Bali in December is to thrash out a new treaty to limit greenhouse gases to take effect after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the parent of the Kyoto agreement, held a meeting in the western German city of Bonn last month to lay the groundwork for the Bali parley.
06/01/2007 18:31 GMT