BERLIN, March 7 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday called on the member states of the European Union (EU) to take a "pioneering position" on the fight against global warming.

    Merkel expected a commitment by the EU members to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by 2020 at the upcoming EU summit on Thursday, according to British newspaper Financial Times published on Wednesday.

    Europe should come "at the forefront internationally," said the chancellor, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency. "The necessity to combat climate change and to reduce our energy dependency coupled with the fact that Kyoto is now running out," she said, adding that her long-term goal was a global agreement on emissions cut after the Kyoto Protocol expires in2012.

    The chancellor admitted that Berlin had yet to overcome the skepticism of some countries, including France, which opposes a binding obligation to raise the share of renewable resources use in Europe's overall energy consumption to 20 percent by 2020.

    "It won't be easy, but that's why the EU should make commitments now and take this pioneering position," she said. The chancellor is also expected to bring up the issue at the Group of Eight summit of leading industrialized nations to be heldin the northern German Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm in June.