A summit of world leaders has dimmed hopes for a strong new U.N. climate pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen in December, with details looking ever more likely to be left for 2010.

But climate change experts and observers also refused to focus on the negative, noting that many countries struggling with recession were likely to make concessions only at the last moment.

China laid out a plan to curb carbon emissions by 2020 and U.S. President Barack Obama called on all nations to act now to tackle global warming, as world leaders tried to inject momentum into climate change talks.

The most anticipated climate meeting in years will be held in the Danish capital in December. Out of those talks a broader climate pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol is expected to emerge.

Environment Ministers from about 190 nations gather in the Danish capital at the end of the year to try and agree to a broader global pact to fight climate change.

The aim is to build on the existing Kyoto Protocol by ensuring rich nations sign up to deeper emissions cuts while offering greater assistance to developing countries to help them curb greenhouse gas pollution as well.

South Korea plans this year to unveil targeted cuts in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly, Lee also said his country intends to invest about two percent of its GDP in "green growth" during the next five years.

World leaders gathered here for a global summit meeting on climate change made modest proposals on Tuesday for combating the problem, underscoring the way domestic political battles still trump what United Nations officials had hoped would be a sense of global urgency.

A group of 500 businesses and nonprofit executives on Tuesday urged global governments to take action on climate change, saying failure to do so would result in catastrophe for the planet and global markets.

As world leaders gather in New York for the highest-level conference yet on climate change, European leaders are expressing growing unease about the United States

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will unveil a plan to support developing countries in technology and funding to fight climate change at a U.N. meeting this week, Japan's environment minister said on Sunday.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is extending $780 million to the country through a multi-tranche financing facility for energy efficiency projects that will help cater to the country