Date: 20-Oct-09
Country: BRAZIL
Author: Guillermo Parra-Berna/lRaymond Colitt
 

SAO PAULO - Brazil wants to forge a common position among all Amazon basin countries for a global climate summit later this year, the country's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said on Monday.

Brazil has been seeking a growing role in climate talks designed to agree upon a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, which are blamed for global warming.

Lula was considering inviting the presidents of all Amazon states to discuss the issue on November 26, he told reporters after a meeting in Sao Paulo with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

Brazil, one of the world's top greenhouse gas emitters, is expected to announce its own targets for the December summit in Copenhagen by the end of this month.

It is considering freezing its total greenhouse gas emissions at 2005 levels.

Lula last week said Brazil, which harbors the vast majority of the Amazon rain forest, would cut deforestation 80 percent by 2020 from a 10-year average through 2005.

Other countries of the Amazon region include Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana.

(Editing by Brian Ellsworth and Cynthia Osterman)