Australia-China to hold climate talks

Australia and China will hold ministerial talks on climate change to help deal with the global challenge, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.
Mr Rudd said the talks were agreed to during a meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing.
The prime minister said climate change was a huge global issue and he was particularly keen to strengthen Australia's cooperation with China on clean coal technology.
"Australia and China, as a result of our meetings here in Beijing in March-April, have agreed to establish an Australia-China Climate Change Ministerial dialogue," Mr Rudd told reporters in Beijing.
"That will have its first meeting now in Canberra in November and we're looking forward to those discussions with our Chinese friends."
As Mr Rudd spoke to reporters from the seventh floor of an office tower in the Olympic precinct, the Bird's Nest stadium behind him was shrouded in a thick cloud of smog and fog.
But the prime minister said the Chinese had done much to improve air quality, particularly ahead of the Beijing Olympics, which opens on Friday.
"It's tough, it's a big challenge and of course if you have a combination of pollution factors and haze factors, it's always going to be difficult to deal with," he said.
However Mr Rudd said he was reassured by International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge's comments that pollution levels would be monitored every couple of hours during the Games and if deemed too high, action would be taken.
"That strikes me as a responsible course of action, it's the right course of action. These things have to be subjected to science and therefore the burden lies very much with the IOC to make sure that happens," he said.
"Because the well-being and health of our athletes is of first and fundamental importance, not just for Australia, but I'm sure for all the young people participating in these Games from around the world."
© 2008 AAP