The leaders of Australia and Japan say an agreement on climate change was the most significant achievement of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, UPI reported. Australian Prime Minister John Howard called the Sydney Declaration on climate change, the first to include the United States, China and the Russian Federation as signatories, "a very important component on the hard march of mankind towards reaching a sensible workable international agreement to cover the period post Kyoto," the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported Sunday. "What this agreement represents is a proper recognition of the fact that different economies have different needs," he said. Shinzo Abe, prime minister of Japan, also praised the agreement where he said leaders "got down to earnest discussions on climate change." Leaders at the talks also called for revival of the stalled Doha round of world trade talks, and agreed India should not join APEC until at least 2010, the ABC said.
