Brussels  - The European Union and Brazil want to set up a permanent high-level council to run their joint action on climate change at a summit in Stockholm next Tuesday, according to a draft declaration seen Thursday by the German Press Agency dpa.

"It is in the interests of both the European Union and Brazil to deepen their bilateral cooperation to address the growing challenges of climate change as well as clean technology ... Against this background, Brazil and the EU decide to set up an EU-Brazil Council on Climate Change and Clean Technologies," the draft says.

No details of its task are given in the text, but the EU is keen to see developing states set and implement ambitious goals for reducing their greenhouse-gas emissions, while developing countries are keen to win access to the latest climate-change technology.

The draft was drawn up by the Swedish government, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency and which is due to host the summit. Brazil's president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, is set to represent his country there.

The document is still under negotiation and the wording could be significantly changed, but EU diplomats said that there had been "positive noises" on the issue from Brazil and EU member states.

According to the draft, the council would meet for the first time in 2010, and would meet once a year thereafter, alternately in Brazil and in Europe.

The EU would be represented by top officials from the bloc's executive, the European Commission, and from whichever country holds the rotating EU presidency.

The draft leaves open the question of who would represent Brazil, but protocol would suggest that it would be officials of ministerial level.

The EU is keen to win the support of the major developing economies for a United Nations deal on fighting climate change in Copenhagen in December. EU officials see Brazil as a key player because of its immense forest areas in the Amazon and its leadership on the question of bio-fuels.

The draft declaration also commits both sides to push for an agreement in Copenhagen to put international money into the fight against deforestation.

That would be "with a view to reduce gross tropical deforestation by at least 50 per cent by 2020 and halt global forest cover loss by 2030 at the latest," it says.

The numbers reflect the EU's official goal, first articulated a year ago. Separately, Brazil has announced targets of reducing deforestation rates in the Amazon by 70 per cent in the next decade.

Separately, on Wednesday the European Commission proposed a 100-million-euro (146-million-dollar) fund to underpin investment into climate-change and clean-energy projects in Latin America.  dpa