The United States (US) aims to work together with Malaysia and the developing nations to address the issues of climate change, including Malaysia's pledge to cut down carbon dioxide emission.

The US Ambassador to Malaysia, James R Keith said the US was seeking an international accord that included emission reduction commitments from both developed and major developing countries besides providing financial and technological assistance for poor countries and to find a way to independently verify the cuts all nations made.

"We have seen Prime Minister Najib's (Abdul Razak) announcement in Copenhagen. Our aim is to work with Malaysia and other developing nations to achieve ambitious objectives.

"A truly ambitious effort will necessarily include significant efforts by both the developed and the developing world; we are all in this together," he said in a statement today.

Yesterday at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in the Danish capital, Najib had announced that Malaysia had agreed to a 40 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emission by year 2020 with a condition that it gets assistance from the developed nations to achieve the goal.

Najib also said that Malaysia was committed to ensure at least half of its land area remained as forests as pledged at the Rio Summit.

He also called on the developed countries to collectively commit in Copenhagen to an aggregate reduction of 49 per cent by 2017 compared to the 1990 levels.

In Copenhagen, the Obama administration has committed to help to build a US$100 million annual fund by 2020 to help genuinely poor countries to cope with climate change and assuming that an agreement can be reached on transparency in the tracking of emission cuts.

The US also announced a US$1 billion in funding aimed at helping the most vulnerable developing countries to preserve their forests.

- Bernama