BERLIN, June 3 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday that she would make last-minute effort to help produce a substantial agreement on climate change at the upcoming summit of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations.

    Merkel said that she believed the United States could be brought into a UN process to fight climate change at the G8 summit scheduled to be held on June 6-8 at the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm.

    "The U.S. initiatives on climate protection are very welcome to us, under the condition that they are channeled into the framework of the U.N. program," she said, three days after U.S. President George W. Bush announced his own climate strategy.

    On Thursday, Bush said that his country was ready to accept a global goal for curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

    "My proposal is this: By the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases," he said.

    Germany took the U.S. move as a positive change from its previous position, as the Bush administration opposed a proposal by Germany to curb greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below the 1990 levels by the year 2020.