China wants rich countries to commit one per cent of their economic worth to help poor nations fight global warming, and will press for a new international mechanism to spread "green" technology worldwide.

Unveiling the demands yesterday, a senior Chinese official for climate change policy, Gao Guangsheng, said the financial turmoil rattling the global economy should not deter a big increase in funds and technology to poor nations.

"Developing countries should take action, but a prerequisite for this action is that developed countries provide funds and transfer technology," Mr Gao told a news conference.

"Developed countries' funding to support developing countries response to climate change should reach one per cent of the developed countries' GDP."

Mr Gao said current funds to help fight climate change were "virtually nothing".

China will detail its proposal at a conference next week that will assemble representatives from the US, Europe and many rich and poor countries, he said.

Mr Gao is chief of the climate change office in the National Development and Reform Commission, a super-ministry steering economic policy. His call may signal China wants a more active role in climate change talks in which it has usually preferred to stay low-key.

Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, felling forests and farming are trapping growing levels of solar radiation in the atmosphere, threatening dangerous rises in average global temperatures.

China's 1.3 billion people, fast-growing economy and bulging exports have pushed its emissions of greenhouse gases above the US, long the world's biggest emitter, according to many experts.

But under the current Kyoto Protocol, a UN-backed pact to fight climate change, China and other Third World economies do not shoulder specific goals to contain emissions.