SYDNEY, July 23 (Reuters) - Australia, criticised as a Kyoto Protocol holdout, called on Monday for global support for a plan to use satellite technology to track deforestation, which it argues is key to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Australia said in March it would give A$200 million ($175 million) over five years to a World Bank-backed fund to help counter forest destruction and illegal logging in the Asia-Pacific region, through monitoring and reforestation programmes.

Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull called for international partners to create a global system that would use satellite technology to collect data and map changes in forest cover in other countries.

"Attacking the problem of deforestation is one of the most important steps we can take to cut carbon emissions in the here and now," Turnbull said at a meeting of ministers and officials from more than 60 countries to discuss forests and climate.

"The economics of climate change demand it," he told delegates, including representatives from Brazil and Indonesia, whose vast forests are being rapidly depleted.

Australia, which signed but failed to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, already operates a national monitoring system.

The government of Prime Minister John Howard, lagging in polls and facing an election later this year, is under pressure to do more about climate change, with about 80 percent of voters expressing concern about global warming.

But Canberra argues practical measures such as stopping forest destruction make a greater contribution to fighting climate change than pacts like Kyoto.

Australia will host the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in September, which it has flagged as a historic opportunity to build consensus on a post-Kyoto deal embracing developed economies and emerging heavyweights India and China. ($1=A$1.14)

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