"We do not see this as a replacement, we see it as a complement to the Kyoto Protocol," Dobriansky said.

Greenpeace panned the first meeting of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate and said it amounted to a voluntary agreement that had no specific timeline to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"By promoting the pact, President (George W.) Bush and Prime Minister (John) Howard of Australia are putting the environment and public at risk in an effort to deflect criticism for their total failure to address global warming," Greenpeace said in a statement.

The Asia-Pacific pact was agreed on last July and involves the United States, Australia, China, Japan, India and South Korea. It looks at how to develop technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions rather than having specific targets.

"This partnership is about implementation of a broad range of objectives and not just greenhouse gases," White House environmental expert James Connaughton said.

Neither the United States nor Australia are signatories to Kyoto, while China, India and South Korea support the agreement with nonbinding commitments. Japan has binding agreements.

The United States pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol in 2001 saying it would hurt the US economy. Instead, the Bush administration would like a voluntary reduction in greenhouse gas intensity by 18 percent by 2012.

Connaughton said while specific targets would not be set by the six-party climate pact, the United States would go to the table with their nationally set targets.

For example, cement manufacturers pledged to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent on a per ton basis by 2020, while iron and steel firms committed to a 10 percent improvement in efficiency by 2012.

"Most of our pollution control in America will come through good old-fashioned Wall Street financing," Connaughton said.

Dobriansky said she expected a charter would be issued at the end of the meeting in Sydney as well as a "work plan" both for countries and companies.