Abe flew to Heiligendamm from Berlin, where Japan and the European Union agreed on Tuesday to take the lead in forging a successor to the Kyoto Protocol and jointly proposed to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Climate change tops the agenda for the summit of the leaders of the world's industrial powers.

"The EU and Japan are committed to take strong leadership towards the development of a fair, flexible, effective and comprehensive UN post-2012 framework that ensures the participation of all major emitting countries," Japan and the EU said in a joint statement.

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol is the world's first treaty mandating emission cuts and will expire in 2012.

"It is inevitable to create a practical framework in which the US, China and India should take part. We would like to have full discussions with other G8 partners on the issue," Abe said.

"It's time to find not differences but common points, and it is important to solidify them," he said.

Ahead of his departure from Tokyo, Abe said Japan would seek to act as a go-between in the fraught debate on climate change.

"The European Union and the United States still remain divided" over their positions on climate change, he told reporters.

"That is why Japan has to take the initiative to lead all the countries in one direction that they can basically accept. I feel that is our important responsibility."

Japan has tried to take a high profile in the fight against climate change in line with its aspirations for greater global influence.

Ahead of the G8 summit, Abe called for all nations to agree in principle to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

As the sole G8 member from Asia, Abe will also try to draw attention to issues in the region, including calling for a tough line against nuclear-armed North Korea.

Abe has already won the EU's support for Japan's initiative in pressing North Korea over its nuclear ambition and its abduction of Japanese citizens during the Cold War era.

"The EU and Japan reaffirmed their strong commitment to the goal of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula," the two sides said, urging the North to "expeditiously" meet its promise to close its nuclear reactor.

In an apparent breakthrough accord in February, the impoverished communist state agreed to close its only working reactor at Yongbyon by mid-April in return for massive aid and diplomatic concessions.

But North Korea refuses to act until it recovers its 25 million dollars which have been frozen in Macau's BDA since 2005 under US-instigated sanctions.

Japan has taken the hardest line at six-nation nuclear talks and has imposed economic sanctions, saying it will not help North Korea until the emotionally charged kidnapping dispute is resolved.

On the sidelines of the G8, Abe will hold separate talks with Bush, Putin and new French President Nicolas Sarkolzy while arranging a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, who was invited as a guest to the summit.

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