Sarkozy urges EU partners to reach climate deal this year

(BRUSSELS) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday called on his EU partners to reach agreement on an ambitious plan to fight climate change by the end of the year, amid Polish and Italian opposition.

"We must find a solution before January," Sarkozy told a press conference after the first day of an EU summit in Brussels.

"I cannot give up the timetable," he stressed.

"We must take note of specific problems of some of our colleagues," he said, adding that "perhaps we haven't done that enough."

Earlier Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi threatened to torpedo the European Union's climate change plans, branding them too big a burden for business amid the global financial crisis.

Poland too appeared not far behind him.

"I have announced my intention to exercise my veto," the Italian leader told another press conference on the sidelines of the summit.

Last year, EU leaders vowed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. They also pledged to have renewable energies make up 20 percent of all energy sources.

But many EU nations have begun to baulk at the costs involved and the consequences to industry of the climate change goals.

The foreign minister of Poland, heavily dependent on coal-fired power, said his country would resist attempts to railroad the targets through.

Sarkozy, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said the environment issue was a "vital question".

He echoed earlier warnings from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso not to let the current financial crisis derail environmental goals.

"The crisis must not diminish our ambitions. On the contrary we need to get out of this dilemma of growth or environmental protection. Clean growth is a way of boosting growth."