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By Noah Barkin

WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) - The European Union and the United States agreed at a summit on Monday global warming is an "urgent" priority but split along familiar lines on how quickly developing nations like China should join in addressing the problem.

U.S. President George W. Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso held White House talks at which they also tried to breathe fresh life into the often-stalled Doha round of trade talks, saying they were firmly dedicated to the search for an accord.

It was Merkel's first visit to Washington since she took over the rotating EU presidency, and she pushed global climate change in hopes of making it a big part of the agenda at a Group of Eight summit she is hosting in Germany in June.

Bush, who critics charged was late to recognize climate change as a problem, made clear he felt any agreement between the United States and Europe would have a limited impact as long as developing countries like China are not included.

"The United States could shut our economy and emit no greenhouse gases, and all it would take is for China in about 18 months to produce as much as we had been producing" to make up the difference, he said.

But Merkel said the developed world must lead the effort to reduce carbon emissions.

"If the developed countries with the best technologies do nothing, then it will be very tough to convince the others. Without convincing the others, worldwide CO2 emissions won't go down," she said.

PROGRESS SEEN

Still, the European side said it felt progress was made on the issue, despite an absence of concrete steps the EU and the United States can take together to address the problem.

"I really welcome the fact that there was progress in this meeting," said Barroso. "We agree there's a threat, there's a very serious and global threat. We agree that there is a need to reduce emissions. We agree that we should work together."

They agreed to hold an international renewable energy conference at the ministerial level in Washington in March with the goal of advancing the development and commercialization of renewable energy sources, including biofuels and solar energy.

There was no agreement, however, on any joint effort to reduce carbon emissions, a move sought by many environmentalists.

Anthony Kreindler of Environmental Defense saw little new in Bush's stance on global warming.

"Even now as international scientists are saying that we are running out of time to fix the climate problem, the Bush administration is saying we should wait: wait for China, wait for new technologies," Kreindler said in an e-mail. "Since when has the U.S. waited for China to take the first step?"

The U.S. and EU leaders met against a backdrop of Russian criticism of U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Eastern Europe and a vow from Russian President Vladimir Putin to take "appropriate measures" to counter the system.

Bush said Merkel had previously expressed to him German and European concerns about the missile shield and that he should explain what he envisions to Putin.

As a result, Bush said he sent U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Moscow last week to meet Putin to offer Russia the opportunity to be included in a shield that Washington sees aimed at countering the threat of terrorist attack and not a resurrection of the Cold War.

"Therefore, we have started a dialogue ... that hopefully will make explicit our intentions, and hopefully present an opportunity to share with the Russians, so that they don't see us as an antagonistic force but see us as a friendly force," Bush said. (Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria and Matt Spetalnick)

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