Sep 20, 2005 -- BBC Monitoring

 

Australia and the United States have met to discuss the outcomes they would like from the first meeting of a new international grouping on climate change. The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Energy and Climate will meet in Australia in November, involving China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and the United States. It is an alternative to the Kyoto protocol, aimed at using technology rather than greenhouse gas reduction targets to combat climate change.

Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, has held talks in Washington with the US president's environment adviser. [Downer] We're working to put together outcomes for the inaugural ministerial meeting later this year. And I'm not going to announce the announceables [as heard] before we've agreed to the announceables, but we're coming out with some very practical ways of taking this issue forward.

Source: Radio Australia, Melbourne, in English 0800 gmt 20 Sep 05

BBC Mon Alert AS1 AsPol pjt

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