By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

VIENNA, Aug 29 (Reuters) - The United States praised developing nations' efforts to curb greenhouse gases on Wednesday, a marked shift from its usual call for big emitters such as China and India to do more to fight global warming.

Chief climate negotiator Harlan Watson also played down conflicts with the European Union over the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol, saying there were more areas of agreement than disagreement between the two over global warming policy.

Environmentalists said the U.S. seemed eager at climate talks in Vienna to smooth the way towards a meeting called by President George W. Bush among major emitters on Sept. 27-28 in Washington to work out new greenhouse gas curbs.

"There is an...opinion from the outside that developing countries are not doing anything, which is a totally false impression," Watson told a news conference during the Aug. 27-31 meeting of 1,000 officials from 158 nations.

"Developing countries are taking action, their emissions are growing, but they are taking action which is going to have significant impact," he said.

President George W. Bush has said that developing nations such as China and India must do more to fight global warming if Washington is going to join any new global deal beyond 2012 when a first phase of the Kyoto Protocol runs out.

Bush decided in 2001 not to join his main industrial allies in ratifying Kyoto, saying it would cost too much and wrongly excluded 2012 targets for developing nations led by China and India.

CONCILIATORY

The EU and other Kyoto backers view the pact as a first binding step to fight warming, that could bring more heatwaves, floods, spread disease, disrupt farming and raise sea levels.

"It's unusual that (Watson) is saying that developing countries are acting," said Gustavo Silva-Chavez of Environmental Defense.

"He was very conciliatory," said Hans Verolme, climate expert for the WWF environmental group. He said developing nations, led by China and India, wanted signs that their efforts were appreciated before attending the Washington talks, which are meant to work out new climate goals by the end of 2008.

China, for instance, says it is acting with plans to improve its industrial energy efficiency by 20 percent in the next five and step up recycling even as it opens coal-fired power plants at a rate of two a week.

Bush says his talks among major economies, including other top emitters led by China, the European Union, Russia, India and Japan, will aim to work out curbs beyond 2012 by the end of 2008 and then support a global U.N. deal in 2009.

"There are a lot more areas of agreement between the EU and the U.S. than disagreement," Watson said.

He noted disagreement with the EU over Kyoto, which binds 35 nations to cut greenhouse gases by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 but said the two were cooperating on areas such as technology, environmental research and nuclear reactors.

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