Clinton outlines plans for US-China climate talks

Disappointment over an apparent lack of progress at the latest round of informal UN-backed climate talks last week were tempered by the news US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is determined to begin work to break the deadlock between the US and China over emission targets on her trip to the country this week.

Clinton, who arrived in Tokyo today on her first international trip since taking up her post in Barack Obama's administration, said that brokering a US-Sino climate change pack would be near the top of her agenda when she visits China later this week.

Speaking at the Asia Society in New York ahead of her trip, Clinton set out plans for a US-China pact to help cut both country's emissions modeled on proposals put forward by experts from the Asia Society and the Pew Centre for Climate Change last week.

Clinton said she would "press the case" for greater energy efficiency and clean energy use across the Chinese economy, stating that a deal on climate change could help broaden relations between the two countries, particularly in emerging technology areas such as clean coal systems.

She is also expected to propose a presidential summit on the topic to be held later this year between Barack Obama and Hu Jintao.

The proposals won praise from the UN's top climate change chief Yvo De Boer, who said the shift in approach compared to that of the Bush administration and should help encourage large emerging economies such as China to sign up to an international deal later this year.

"I believe that a Sino-American way forward on trade, on technology and on climate change could be a major contribution and impulse to the broader negotiating process," he said to reporters at the close of the latest UN talks in Tokyo, adding that Clinton's tour of the region would have "incredible importance" for global efforts on climate change.