The 32 countries sharing the world's three largest rainforest basins agreed Friday to cooperate in tackling deforestation and called on industrialised nations to help finance their efforts.

The agreement came in a declaration at the end of a first meeting in the Congolese capital Brazzaville of experts from the Congo Basin in Central Africa, South America's Amazon Basin and the Borneo-Mekong Basin in South-East Asia.

The three basins represent 80 percent of the world's rainforests and two-thirds of its biodiversity, according to experts.

Participating nations agreed in a declaration to "put forward their common interest in the framework of different multilateral forums" and to "adopt concrete measures to promote dialogue and cooperation between countries."

Nations acknowledged "the links between deforestation and forest degradation as well as socio-economic issues such as sustainability and poverty reduction."

The declaration also called on the international community to "support their efforts" and help provide "long-term and transparent financing for a durable forest management."

Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso said the agreement would help provide "a new dynamism... of solidarity between the basins."

Congo and other African basin countries have been pushing for a permanent structure to coordinate efforts but had to settle for the declaration recognising "the need to put in place a platform for promotion and cooperation between the countries of the three forest basins."

The idea of a permanent structure ran up against opposition from some heavyweight nations at the meeting, such as Brazil.

"It was premature," the head of the Brazilian delegation, Paulino Franco de Carvalho, told AFP, adding that there was no need for a "new bureaucracy" when other institutions for international cooperation already exist.

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