Asian leaders sign vague climate pact

By Neil Chatterjee

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Leaders of 16 Asian countries, including top polluters China and Japan, agreed to a vague pact on climate change on Wednesday, as they tried to put aside discord over Myanmar's suppression of democracy protests.

In the declaration signed in Singapore, leaders of the East Asia Summit (EAS) committed to stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the long run.

The pact will serve as a basis for climate negotiations at a major U.N. meeting next month in Bali, but it contains no fixed targets on cutting emissions or even limiting their growth by a specific date, after objections from poorer Asian countries.

"Climate change has to be addressed -- but they cannot leave people in absolute poverty," Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said after the negotiations.

The EAS -- 10 Southeast Asian nations plus China, India, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand -- agreed that all countries should address the challenge of climate change, based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

Asked why it did not include numerical targets, Singapore's Lee said: "This is a declaration of intent, not a negotiated treaty of what we are going to do to restrict ourselves."

Australia said the pact would make it easier to negotiate a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol on limiting greenhouse gas emissions. The U.N. hopes the Bali meeting will kick off two years of talks to agree a new framework to fight climate change.

"There has been a turning of the tide in China and India's position -- they're saying 'yes we need to do something to stabilize emissions'," Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said earlier.