BERLIN, May 4, 2009 (AFP) – Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said Tuesday that industrialized nations must lead the way in hammering out a new global climate treaty to replace the Kyoto agreement when it expires in 2012.

“We need a new framework, as of 2013, to fight climate change and the main polluting countries must assume their responsibilities” in dealing with the issue, he told reporters after talks here with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“Japan, Germany and other leading industrial countries must play a leading role” in fighting climate change, he added.

An international environmental conference is being held in Copenhagen in December in a bid to produce a new climate treaty.

At the start of a European tour in Prague on Monday, Aso agreed that Japan would join forces with the European Union, whose presidency the Czech Republic currently holds, to fight climate change.

The two sides signed a joint statement on accepting a report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which recommends a 25 to 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions for industrialised countries by 2020.

Japan has not announced its mid-term target yet, but it has pledged to reduce carbon emissions by up to 80 percent by 2050.

But Tokyo is lagging behind as it has been reluctant to hamper industry in an ailing economy.

Aso and Merkel also discussed the global economic crisis and their governments’ moves to deal with it, along with the need for the international community to back UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea.

The Security Council on April 13 banned transactions and called on UN member states to freeze the assets of three of the country’s business entities after Pyongyang carried out what the West described as a disguised missile test.

“Germany will do everything it can to support the six-party talks,” Merkel said, referring to efforts by China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States to work toward North Korean disarmament.