The meeting will gather environment and energy ministers from 20 nations in Chiba prefecture just east of Tokyo for talks on climate change and clean energy, an official at the environment ministry said.

The ministry did not give the exact date or location.

It will be the fourth such meeting after Britain's initiative during the 2005 Group of Eight summit of developed nations in Gleneagles, Scotland.

Japan will hold next year's summit of G8 leaders in the northern town of Toyako, a pristine winter resort chosen in part to highlight the fight against global warming.

Chief government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki said Friday that the G8 foreign ministers' meeting will be held in the ancient capital of Kyoto, with the finance ministers to meet in the western metropolis of Osaka.

The G8 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. The larger G20 includes other rapidly growing energy consumers such as China and India.

Other nations include Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, South Africa, South Korea and Spain.

The UN's top scientific panel said at a meeting earlier this month that early, deep cuts in global greenhouse emissions could avert long-term climate change.

Japan was host of the Kyoto Protocol, the landmark treaty that requires cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The United States and Australia shun the pact.

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