The 44-page document lays out China's long-standing position that developed countries should shoulder the historic burden of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide that are chiefly responsible for causing a rise in global temperatures.

"Developed countries should be responsible for their accumulative emissions and current high per-capita emissions, and take the lead in reducing emissions, in addition to providing financial support and transferring technologies to developing countries," the paper said.

In addition, developing countries "should actively adopt adaptation measures, reduce their emissions to the lowest degree and fulfill their duties in addressing climate change," it said.

China would do its part by reducing emissions, developing renewable energy, and focusing on energy conservation, it said.

"We in China are also taking aggressive measures to slow down growth of greenhouse gas emissions," Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planning body, said during a news conference on the policy paper.

China has cut its energy consumption by nearly 4 percent and scores of coal-fired power plants, iron furnaces and cement producers have been shut, the policy paper said. Renewable energy sources now account for 8.3 percent of overall energy use, but at the same time, China acknowledged that its reliance on coal makes its goal of reducing greenhouse gases "a tough one."

According to some experts, the country has already surpassed the United States to become the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, produced from coal combustion among other pollutants.

Xie said he believed that China's emission levels were on par with the U.S, but that a more definitive government study was under way.

"Based on information we have at hand, our emission level is roughly the same as that of the United States. Whether our emissions are higher than the United States is not what really matters," Xie said, pointing out that developed nations have historically emitted more greenhouse gases during their industrialization.

In the policy paper, China made it clear it expects rich nations to be "obligated to promote international technology cooperation and transfer, and concretely materialize their promises to provided financial and technological support to developing countries."

A day earlier, a senior Chinese climate official had suggested that richer countries should set aside 1 percent of their gross domestic product in the fight against climate change.

On Wednesday, Xie said he thought "developed countries should, at least, contribute 0.7 percent of their GDP" to help fund poorer countries' fight global warming.

The policy paper was released ahead of an international conference on climate change next month in Beijing, organized by the U.N. and the Chinese government, to promote transfer of international green technology.

Negotiations are continuing on a successor to the U.N.-sponsored Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. A major U.N. climate change conference in December in the Polish city of Poznan will include delegates from more than 190 countries.

The U.S. rejected the Kyoto accord, arguing it would harm American business and made no comparable demands on emerging economies. China, India and other large developing countries signed the accord but refused to accept a binding agreement that they said would limit their development and their ability to ease poverty at home.

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