(Updates with more Howard quotes)

SYDNEY, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific nations, including China and the United States, agreed on Saturday to adopt a "long-term aspirational goal" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said.

Howard said 21 Asia-Pacific leaders meeting in Sydney had agreed on the need for all nations, developing and developed, to contribute according to their own capacities and circumstances to reducing greenhouse gases.

"I am pleased to report in the Sydney Declaration the leaders have moved to forge a new international consensus," Howard told reporters at the end of the first day of the weekend summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

"We are serious about addressing in a sensible way, compatible with our different economic needs, the great challenge of climate change," Howard said.

"This demonstrates the relevance of APEC. It demonstrates that APEC is very much alive and kicking."

Howard said the leaders had also agreed on the need for "specific APEC goals on energy intensity and forestry" and the important role of clean coal technologies.

Coal, the most abundant conventional fossil fuel, is responsible for a quarter of the world's total carbon emissions.

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 committed them to binding targets, believing it would hinder economic development. They argued that developed nations should take more responsibility for climate change.

Green groups have said the APEC summit would be a failure if it did not agree to binding greenhouse gas reduction targets.

The Sydney Declaration 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.

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