HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - EU efforts to speed action on climate change took a blow on Tuesday when Japan refused to follow the EU line on how to establish a new international regime once the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Delegates of the 8th ASEM Foreign Ministers meeting pose for a family photo in the courtyard of the town hall in Hamburg, May 29, 2007. REUTERS/Morris Mac Matzen

A statement from EU president Germany, which chaired a gathering of EU and Asian foreign ministers in Hamburg ahead of next week’s meeting of Group of Eight (G8) leaders, said talks to establish a new regime should be completed by 2009.

But Japan said it could not accept a 2009 target, saying big polluters such as the United States, China and India should be included before any such target was set.

“Japan cannot agree with this because we should think about how we can invite non-Kyoto members such as the U.S., China and India and others,” Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mitsui Sakaba told reporters.

“We should work first for the inclusion of those countries. Fixing the target should come much later.”

Germany is leading a drive to persuade the United States to follow Europe’s lead on climate change before a June 6-8 summit of the Group of Eight industrial nations.

Chancellor Angela Merkel wants the G8 to agree concrete steps that would prepare the ground for an extension of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which commits signatories to reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

“We need the Asians as well,” said a spokeswoman for EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner. “Global warming is something that is global and we need all continents participating in the post-Kyoto plan.”

The EU has agreed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, challenging industrial and developing countries to go further with a 30 percent cut that it promises the EU would then match.

POST KYOTO

The German statement said the Hamburg meeting -- which brought together the 27 EU states with the 10 countries in the Association of South East Asian Nations, as well as China, Japan, South Korea, India and Pakistan -- had stressed the need for “a global and comprehensive post-2012 climate regime”.

It said this should be “in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities” -- indicating that not all countries would be expected to move at the same pace.

It said the meeting had acknowledged the role of targets for the use of energy from renewable sources and improved energy efficiency, “taking national circumstances into account”.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said a balance had to be struck between the right to develop and the environment, but developing countries could help by allowing more transfers of clean technology.

“All countries should work together in terms of exploring new sources of energy, alternative energy and clean technology,” he told a news conference.

“In this respect, perhaps the developed countries can do more ... we are moving towards the same goal and we should each contribute in our own way to environmental protection.”

The Association of South East Asian Nations said its 10 members needed time but action was required.

“If we go on arguing about whether this number or this standard is fair or not fair we will never agree on what to do, and in the meantime the earth is getting warmer and more things are happening,” said ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong.