UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - China's leaders told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that Beijing really wants to reach a new agreement on combating climate change in Copenhagen in December, Ban said on Wednesday.
"I was pleased that President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao assured me that China wants to seal a deal in Copenhagen in December and that China will play an active and constructive role in the negotiations," Ban told a monthly news conference.
The U.N. chief has just returned from an official visit to China and Mongolia.
China recently passed the United States as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions and together the two countries account for 42 percent of the world's emissions.
Greenhouse gas emissions are widely considered to be one of the principal causes of global warming. Nations will gather in Copenhagen in December to work out a new agreement on reducing emissions to succeed the current Kyoto Protocol, whose first phase ends in 2012.
Climate concerns are expected to be high on the agenda when U.S. President Barack Obama visits China for a summit meeting with President Hu later this year.
It will be the main focus of a climate change summit in September in New York on the sidelines of the General Assembly. Both Obama and Hu are expected to attend.
(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Eric Walsh)
