BEIJING, June 4 (Xinhua) -- China is ready to strengthen cooperation with the United States on climate change by seeking common interests and shelving differences, said China's top economic planner Ma Kai at the official launch of the country's first national action plan on climate change.

    "The United States and China are both big energy producers and consumers and greenhouse gas emitters, and the two countries face common challenges and have an increasing expanding common consensus," he said.

    Ma, who is also minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission, said the U.S.'s new climate plan released in late May should complement rather than replace the Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

    The new U.S. plan unveiled by President George W. Bush proposes that representatives from 15 countries including China and India meet this fall to set long-term global goals for reducing greenhouse gases.

    He said the new plan from the United States shows positive changes and emphasizes technology innovation and technology transfer to combat climate change.

    Ma said China has not set targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions but said its energy saving plan is aimed at producing fewer emissions per unit of GDP.

    The Chinese government aims to cut major pollutants including sulphur dioxide by 10 percent by the turn of the decade.

    Ma noted the consumption of fossil fuels contributed to 75 percent of carbon dioxide emissions.

    China is set to sign with the United States a joint bio-fuel project that will use non-crop materials, Ma said, citing it as an example of developing renewable energy to cut carbon emissions.

    Among other measures aimed at cutting carbon discharge, Ma announced the Chinese government will strive to boost the proportion of renewable energy to 16 percent of all energy consumption by 2020 from current level of 7 percent.

    The minister said the country will also raise forest coverage rate to 20 percent by 2010 and use more methane and coal-bed gas for energy use in a bid to cut carbon emissions.

    Ma said the per capita carbon discharge in China is lower than the world average level. He quoted figures from the International Energy Agency as saying China's per capita carbon dioxide discharge was 3.65 tons in 2004. That number was 87 percent of the world average level and just 33 percent of members of the Organization of the Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), he added.