Amazon, France summit on climate change begins in Brazil

MANAUS, Brazil, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Amazon basin and France Summit on climate change started on Thursday in Manaus with the presence of French President Nicholas Sarkozy, Guyana leader Jean-Pierre Laflaquire and Brazilian President Lula da Silva, who has proposed the meeting.

Representatives of Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia also attend the summit.

The Brazilian Minister of External Relations Celso Amorim said that French President Sarkozy's presence is very meaningful and bringing together representatives from invited countries is an important achievement.

Earlier this month, the Brazilian president invited his counterparts of the countries straddling the Amazon basin for this meeting. France was also invited as its overseas department of French Guyana is located in the Amazon region.

Lula's aim was to discuss a common proposal for next month's UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, capital of Denmark.

The UN climate change conference in Copenhagen will be held on Dec. 7-18, at which world leaders will try to strike a deal on a successor to the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol.