India has signed the Kyoto Protocol, which obliges about 40 developed countries to cut their emissions by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. But, along with China, is exempt from the mandatory cuts because it is a developing nation.

India is also part of the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate that met in Sydney, along with the United States, Australia, South Korea, Japan and China, which hopes to tackle climate change without hindering economic growth.

"Neither the Kyoto Protocol nor this partnership can stipulate anything upon the government of India to reduce emissions," Raja told Reuters in an interview from his hotel suite overlooking the Opera House in Sydney.

Environment ministers from around the world agreed in Montreal in December to a road map to extend the Kyoto Protocol climate pact beyond 2012 and to launch new, open-ended world talks on ways to fight climate change that will include Kyoto outsiders such as the United States and developing nations.

But Raja was adamant India would not agree to binding cuts.

"We are developing countries, we have our own agendas for our development activities, so we cannot give any promise, any commitment to reduce further our emissions," he said.

The Asia Pacific Partnership ended two days of talks on Thursday pledging a multi-million-dollar fund to develop clean energy, but said polluting fossil fuels would continue to underpin their economies for generations.

NUCLEAR SOLUTION

India is mainly dependent on coal for its energy, but has about 15 nuclear power plants and is under pressure to boost energy production to meet a furious pace of industrialisation.

"We believe that nuclear power should be used in India to promote our emission reductions," Raja said.

In July 2005, the United States signed a deal to give India access to nuclear technology, including fuel and reactors, that the developing country has been denied for 25 years.

The agreement must be approved by the US Congress and commits India to place nuclear operations associated with its civilian energy programme under international inspection. India has refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty and has developed nuclear weapons in a race with rival Pakistan.

A report released by the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE) on Thursday forecast India's nuclear power industry to grow to meet 16 percent of the country's energy demand by 2050 from two percent in 2001.

While Indian cities are hugely polluted, the country's per-capita carbon emissions are low - less than a quarter of the world average and many times less than the United States.

But ABARE said India's total contribution to global emissions would rise to 9.4 percent by 2050 from 5.4 percent in 2001, while its contribution to global emissions from electricity generation would rise to 10.3 percent by 2050 from 6.2 percent in 2001. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said pursuing nuclear energy as a means of cutting greenhouse gases was a sensitive issue for each of the six partners.