World efforts to fight global warming should be based on honest reporting, but should not necessarily allow one country to interfere in another's business, US President Barack Obama told world leaders in Copenhagen on Friday, DPA reported.
The speech sent a clear message to China, which has long maintained that it will not accept enforced international supervision of its greenhouse-gas emissions reductions, in the face of US calls for effective monitoring.
"We must have a mechanism to review whether we are keeping our commitments and exchange this information in a transparent manner", Obama told the final day of a United Nations summit in the Danish capital.
"Without such accountability, any agreement would be empty words on a page," he stressed.
But at the same time, "these measures need not be intrusive or infringe upon sovereignty," the US president insisted.
Diplomats at the talks said that the row between China and the US over international monitoring had emerged as one of the key stumbling-blocks to an overall deal among more than 120 heads of state and government.
Top politicians from the two superpowers appeared to have narrowed their differences on the issue on Thursday, but the row flared up again in overnight talks.
Obama spoke just minutes after Chinese premier Wen Jiabao said China's actions would be "voluntary" and that the country would be willing to "actively engage in international exchanges and cooperation."
Obama argues for climate transparency, but no intrusion
