NEW YORK: About 100 world leaders are due to gather at the UN Headquarters here to try to revitalise talks on climate change.

Attention is likely to focus on Chinese President Hu

Jintao, who is expected to unveil new measures to tackle his country’s emissions. The meeting comes two months ahead of a summit in Copenhagan aimed at approving a global climate change treaty.

Negotiators are trying to agree on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol to limit carbon emissions. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called today’s meeting an attempt to inject momentum into the deadlocked climate talks.

Discussions have stalled because rich nations are not pledging to cut enough carbon to take the world out of danger, while poorer countries are refusing to commit to binding caps, saying this would prevent them from developing their economies. China’s role is crucial, because it is both an emerging economy and a big polluter, our correspondent says. The UN’s chief climate change negotiator, Yvo de Boer, says he expects an important announcement from Beijing during the meeting.

“China domestic policy is already very ambitious but yes I do expect something dramatic,” he said.

President Hu Jintao is expected to announce “carbon intensity targets” aimed at making Chinese industry more efficient, so that less carbon is produced per unit of

energy generated.

China has already leapfrogged the United States to become the world’s biggest wind power market, and is a growing force in solar

power - and analysts say President Hu may advance

the country’s renewable energy targets even further. Sources claim it is unlikely

that the Chinese will agree to a cap on their carbon emissions.

Despite all its advances in green technology, China still gets 70 per cent of its energy from coal - and as its economy increases, this means yet more growth in greenhouse gases.

There is also concern about the world’s other big polluter, the United States.