(Adds dropped word 'energy' in headline)

By Yoko Kubota

TOKYO, May 23 (Reuters) - Indonesia plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its energy sector by 17 percent by 2025, its environment minister said on Friday, a move that could boost pressure on rich countries to set bold targets of their own.

If Indonesia makes the reduction a formal target, it would be a rare decision by a developing nation to set a unilateral goal of an absolute cut in emissions for a key sector.

"I'd like to voice my concerns that if the issue is not carefully managed, it will threaten the existence of humanity in Asia in particular, and the world in general," said Indonesian Environment minister Rachmat Witoelar.

He was speaking a day before his counterparts from the Group of Eight rich countries and other major emitters meet in Kobe, western Japan, to discuss climate change and other issues.

Most poorer countries say they must put economic growth first and argue that nations that enjoyed the fruits of emissions-intensive growth in the past have a responsibility to act first.

The formula prefered by Asian giant China is a pledge to cut energy and emissions intensity -- the amount of power used and CO2 generated for each unit of national economic growth.

But that would still mean an overall rise in emissions from the country, which may already be the world's biggest carbon dioxide producer, while fellow top emitter the United States only aims to have emissions peak in 2025.

G8 leaders agreed to seriously consider a target to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at last year's summit, a proposal backed by Japan, the European Union and Canada.

But developing countries have balked at committing to the goal without the United States doing more to reduce the emissions that cause global warming, and are demanding rich countries help poorer ones pay for clean technology.

That poses a headache for Japan as it tries to encourage all major emitters to sign up at a G8 summit it hosts in July.

DEVELOPING NATION ROLE

Witoelar urged advanced countries to set midterm goals in order to achieve longer-term targets but added that developing countries also had a role to play.

"Indonesia realises the importance of this issue and has committed itself to play an active role in climate change negotiations," he said.

He added that Jakarta would set a goal of cutting energy sector emissions by 17 percent by 2025 and implement bold reductions in forest burning -- the major source of emissions for Indonesia, one of few countries that still has swathes of carbon-trapping rainforests left.

About 190 nations agreed at U.N.-led talks in Bali last December to launch two-year negotiations on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, which binds only rich nations to emissions cuts by an average of 5 percent between 2008-2012 from 1990 levels.

All nations would be bound under Kyoto's successor from 2013, and under the "Bali Roadmap', nations recognised deep cuts in global emissions were needed.

But there are wide gaps over the size of binding targets, the base year for the goals as well as management and funding of schemes to provide clean energy technology to poor nations. (Additional reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison in Beijing and Ed Davies in Jakarta; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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