RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Brazil on Tuesday played down the importance of a meeting on climate change called by U.S. President George W. Bush, and said the issue should be tackled at the United Nations.

Bush has called a meeting in Washington on Sept. 27-28 to work out new greenhouse gas curbs. Brazil will attend but a senior official said on Tuesday it expects no change in the behavior of the world's leading greenhouse gas emitters.

"The U.S. debate does not represent any new path," said Joao Paulo Capobianco, executive secretary at the environment ministry.

"If the United States opens the debate, it of course interests us, but we have to make clear our understanding that the place for such debate is in the United Nations," he said after a meeting on the environment held in Rio de Janeiro.

Bush has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol for targeted greenhouse gas reductions, but he is calling for a long-term global goal to cut emissions and sees the meeting in Washington as the first of a series between polluting countries.

Brazil is home to the world's largest rain forest and blames industrialized countries for global warming. The United States has often said developing countries are not doing enough to combat the problem.

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