(Updates with comments on Myanmar, India, arrests)

By Jalil Hamid

SYDNEY, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific leaders agreed on Saturday to a "long-term aspirational goal" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but no binding targets, and are expected to end their summit on Sunday urging a conclusion to world trade talks.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard told reporters 21 Asia-Pacific leaders had agreed to a "Sydney Declaration" on climate change, calling it "a new international consensus".

He said the leaders agreed for the need for all nations, developing and developed, to contribute according to their own capacities and circumstances to reducing greenhouse gases.

"We are serious about addressing in a sensible way, compatible with our different economic needs, the great challenge of climate change," he said at the end of the first day of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

Green groups called it a failure without binding targets.

"The Sydney Declaration is really just a Sydney distraction from real action on climate change," Greenpeace energy campaigner Catherine Fitzpatrick said.

The declaration was seen as a compromise between the rich and poor APEC economies, which together account for about 60 percent of the world's economy.

Developing economies, led by China and Indonesia, opposed any wording that commits them to binding targets, believing it would hinder economic development. They argue developed nations should take more responsibility for climate change.

Proponents of the declaration say it sets the stage for the U.N. climate convention's annual summit in Bali, Indonesia in December, which is looking for a successor to the existing U.N. pact, known as the Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012.

The Asia-Pacific leaders will issue a statement on world trade talks on Sunday, said Howard.

U.S. President George W. Bush has called at APEC for more flexibility in world trade talks, saying the Doha round of talks was a "once-in-a-generation opportunity".

Negotiators may be edging closer to a deal on the most divisive issues in the Doha talks, World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy said in an interview on Saturday.

MYANMAR, INDIA

While climate change dominated the APEC summit on Saturday, leaders raised other international issues in sideline meetings.

Presidents Bush and Indonesia's Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono agreed at a meeting on Saturday to urge India and China, which have significant economic ties with Myanmar, to try and exert influence on the military junta.

Bush came to APEC calling on Myanmar to "stop arresting, harrassing, and assaulting pro-democracy activists", after the junta's crackdown on escalating protests against huge fuel price rises and inflation in the isolated state.

A trilateral meeting between the United States, Japan and Australia agreed on Saturday to deal "constructively" with China, which has cast a wary eye on the three-way talks, fearing they could turn into an alliance aimed at containing Beijing.

China has aired suspicions of encirclement if the talks were widened to include India, as Japan has suggested.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the talks focused on India and its importance in Asia-Pacific.

"I think there is a recognition now that India is a coming great power," said Downer. "It is a country that we are all feeling increasingly comfortable in working with."

But Downer said India, unlike Australia and Japan, did not have an alliance relationship with the United States, and it was unlikely to become a fourth partner in the security dialogue.

PROTESTS

The 21 Asia-Pacific leaders met behind a tight security cordon at Sydney Opera House on Saturday, as thousands of protesters marched against the Iraq war and global warming.

The leaders emerged briefly for their traditional "funny shirts photo op", this time dressed in Australian stockmen's raincoats on a brisk, overcast spring day.

Police had feared the protest, several blocks away would turn into a riot, but it ended peacefully, though 17 people were arrested for scuffling with police later.

Now Sydneysiders are questioning whether the $140 million operation featuring 5,000 police and troops, a mine sweeper in Sydney Harbour, a security fence cutting the city in half and the purchase of a water cannon, may have been a bit excessive.

"The biggest reason we're all here is to protest at just how much is being spent on security," Sydney community worker Bridget Hennessey said at Saturday's march. (Additional reporting by Caren Bohan, John Ruwitch in Sydney)

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