Economic planning chiefs from India and China said Wednesday that they were implementing cuts on greenhouse gas emissions from industry, transport and housing which many scientists blame for global warming, by promoting cleaner energy use.

But they are reluctant to submit to compulsory limits that might hamper industry in the short term while rich nations fail to meet the emissions targets they set themselves.

"The industrialized countries have not met the obligations they took on in the Kyoto Protocol," said Montek Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India.

"And not all industrialized countries joined them," he added, referring to the United States. "It’s quite clear that business as usual doesn’t work."

Industrialized countries are trying to get developing nations to join the next round of "post-Kyoto" mandatory emissions limits from 2012. Poor nations were left out of the current curbs because they might hamper development.

Zhang Xiaoqiang, Vice Chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, insisted that the Asian giant was cutting emissions and targeting further cuts.

However, China’s economic growth rate means that overall emissions there are still rising.

Zhang highlighted cement and steel production in China which pollutes about 40 percent more than technologies used in the West, while buildings were half as energy efficient as in Europe.