The G8 rich countries said on Tuesday they want to work with the nearly 200 states involved in U.N. climate change talks to adopt a goal of at least halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The final climate communique agreed by the Group of Eight leaders at a summit in northern Japan also said mid-term goals would be needed to achieve the shared goal for 2050, but gave no numerical targets.
The statement puts the focus of fighting global warming on U.N.-led talks to create a new framework for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and papers over differences inside the G8 itself. The U.N. talks are set to conclude in Copenhagen in December 2009.
The careful wording of the statement - always the most contentious part of summit negotiations - was also unlikely to satisfy those seeking much more specific targets.
Last year, the G8 club of rich nations - Japan, Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and the United States - agreed merely to "seriously consider" a goal of halving global emissions by mid-century.
The European Union and Japan have been pressing for this year's summit to go beyond that, and Brussels wanted clear interim targets as well.
But U.S. President George W. Bush has insisted that Washington cannot agree to binding targets unless big polluters such as China and India rein in their emissions as well.
The European Union's executive welcomed the deal on climate change, saying it represented a "new, shared vision" and kept negotiations on track for a global deal in 2009.
"This is a strong signal to citizens around the world," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Tuesday, adding the EU's benchmark for success had been achieved.
