New Delhi  - India and China Wednesday signed an agreement to cooperate on ways to fight climate change and pledged to set up a group to exchange views concerning international negotiations on climate change, a news report said.

India's Environment Minister , vice chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, signed the agreement, the PTI news agency reported.

The pact comes ahead of the December UN climate-change summit in Copenhagen that will aim to reach a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol and regulate carbon emissions. The protocol expires in 2012.

Ramesh and Xie also agreed to set up a Joint Working Group to discuss mutual domestic policies and the implementation of related cooperative projects, the report said.

It was the first such agreement between India and China even as the fast-growing Asian giants have rejected calls from rich nations to set binding caps on carbon emissions.

China is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, accounting for more than 20 per cent of all global emissions. India accounts for less than 5 per cent and is the fourth biggest emitter behind China, US and Russia.

China and India have long argued that developed countries have generated the largest amounts of greenhouse gases and should bear a greater burden in reducing them, while allowing developing nations to use economic development to raise their standards of living and reduce poverty.

"There is no difference between the Indian and Chinese negotiating positions and we are discussing further what the two countries should be doing for a successful outcome at Copenhagen," Ramesh said after a meeting with Xie.(dpa)