Governments of industrialised and developing countries -- including the world's biggest polluters China and the US -- have been battling over who should carry the burden for curbing the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

"Developed countries have their historic responsibility over climate change," said Sun Zhen, the deputy counsel of the climate change department at China's National Development and Reform Commission.

"There is no reason not to deal with this primary concern," he told the delegates at the opening of a four-day climate change conference in Hong Kong, adding that it was "unfair" to put the blame on developing nations.

"We have a common duty to deal with climate change."

China and the US clashed at a United Nations climate gathering in October, accusing each other of blocking progress ahead of the UN's annual climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, this month.

Sun however said that last month's UN conference, which China hosted in the northeastern city of Tianjin, had gained "certain progress" and he promised China would step up efforts to combat climate change.

The US has asked China to commit to curbing carbon emissions and wants developing countries to agree to more scrutiny of their climate claims.

China, on the other hand, has accusing the US of diverting attention from its failure to pass laws curbing domestic emissions.

The long-running UN negotiations are aimed at eventually securing a binding global treaty on how to limit and cope with climate change.

This would replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of 2012 and aims to keep global warming below the threshold that scientists warn will trigger catastrophic damage to the world's climate system.

Martin Lees, a former senior adviser to the Chinese government on climate change and sustainable development, warned on Wednesday that action has to be taken now before it is too late, and called on China to play a lead role.

"We have to act now," Lees told the Hong Kong conference which drew senior government officials, environmentalists and scholars from around the world.

"China will play a crucial role in determining whether we can overcome the challenges we face now to achieve prosperity and peace for our future generation."

Environmentalists were angered by the gridlock at the UN climate gathering last month, saying the participating nations were acting in their own interests rather than trying to save the planet.

China has set a 2020 target to reduce carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product -- or carbon intensity -- by 40-45 percent from 2005 levels.

It last year invested a world-leading 34.6 billion dollars in clean energy initiatives -- 30 percent of the global total and nearly double US spending.

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