Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday unveiled the initiative to be brought before next month's Group of Eight summit and vowed Tokyo would redirect its foreign aid to help developing countries meet the targets.

"Thank you very much for the prime minister's speech. Of course, Japan's policy is good for us," Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla told an economic forum in Tokyo.

"Let's cooperate. Indonesia is not such a car (driving nation) compared with Japan, China and America. No. But we have one of the largest tropical forests in the world," he said.

The Kyoto Protocol, the landmark treaty mandating cuts of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, expires in 2012.

The United States and Australia have refused to take part in Kyoto, arguing that it is unfair as it makes no demands of emerging economies such as China, which is set soon to outpace the US as the top gas emitter.

Abe on Thursday called for a more flexible framework, with a focus on foreign aid, to encourage all countries to agree to the goal of a 50 percent reduction in emissions by 2050.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.