Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (l) shakes hand with French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a press conference after a meeting at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, 14 Nov 2009France and Brazil have agreed on a common policy to push industrialized nations toward massive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

FrenchPresident Nicholas Sarkozy and Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula daSilva announced the plan Saturday in a joint document. The agreementurges the world's top carbon-emitting nations, including the UnitedStates and China, to significantly curb those emissions by 2050.

Thetwo leaders are calling for cooperation between developed and emergingnations in order to meet international climate change goals.

Brazilpledged Friday to reduce its emissions up to 39 percent by 2020,largely through controlling deforestation. That pledge was hailedSaturday by the head of the European Union executive as a "potentiallydecisive step" in the fight against climate change.

World leaders will meet in Copenhagen next month to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

The U.S. has not ratified the Kyoto treaty.

The U.N. climate change conference will be held December 7-18, and the U.N. says 40 heads of state have pledged to attend.

U.N.scientists say rich countries must cut carbon emissions by 25-40percent from 1990 levels by 2020, to prevent the earth's temperaturefrom rising at a rate that could trigger climate catastrophe.


Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.