By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California will sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for "wantonly" ignoring its duty to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from ships, aircraft, and construction and agricultural equipment, state Attorney General Jerry Brown said on Wednesday.

Brown said the lawsuit, to be announced at a news conference at the Port of Long Beach on Thursday and filed in Washington after a 180-day waiting period mandated by the Clean Air Act, was meant to force the EPA into action.

The lawsuit follows two similar ones this year by California in conjunction with other states on car and truck emissions and ozone pollution.

"Ships, aircraft and industrial equipment burn huge quantities of fossil fuel, causing greenhouse gas pollution, yet President (George W.) Bush stalls with one bureaucratic dodge after another," said Brown, a strong advocate for the environment since his two terms as a liberal California governor in the 1970s and 1980s.

"Because Bush's Environmental Protection Agency continues to wantonly ignore its duty to regulate pollution, California is forced to seek judicial action," he said.

Brown said he was filing the lawsuit because he had petitioned the EPA three times to implement such regulations and was met only with a "pathetically weak" proposal that did not conclude greenhouse gases endangered public health.

An EPA spokesman disagreed, saying the agency had been "fully responsive" to California's petitions and said Brown would be better served lobbying the Democratic-led U.S. Congress to take action.

"TYPICAL OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL"