"We heard a lot of urgency in the words of the world leaders who spoke in the opening session," said David Waskow, a spokesman for Oxfam International.

"What remains to be seen is whether they will be able to translate their language into a fair, ambitious and binding global treaty. All eyes are turning toward Copenhagen and they must not fail in December," he added.

The one-day meeting of 100 nations was hosted by UN chief Ban Ki-moon who brought together the largest-ever climate summit, as the clock ticks to a high-stakes December conference in Copenhagen.

In his first appearance on the UN stage, US President Barack Obama said he was "determined" to act on global warming, but warned of tough negotiations ahead to seal a new world climate pact to succeed the landmark Kyoto Protocol.

"We understand the gravity of the climate threat. We are determined to act and we will meet our responsibility to future generations," he said, arguing that he was presiding over a new era of US action on global warming.

Obama's comments were however greeted with some skepticism.

"Those suffering from famine, drought and flooding now and in future generations will not be comforted by just recognition of the problem, they need action," Waskow said.

"President Obama struck all the right notes. The question is whether he and (the US) Congress will make music with meaning in the next few months," added Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute (WRI).

Former US vice president and environmental activist Al Gore praised China and Japan for providing global leadership in tackling the issue.

"I think that China has provided impressive leadership," Gore told reporters, predicting that Beijing would take further action if global negotiations on a new treaty succeed.

In the first address by a Chinese president to the UN General Assembly, Hu Jintao said the world's largest developing economy was ready to slow down emissions by a "notable margin."

But he said emissions would be measured in terms of China's growth and did not provide a figure.

Andrew Deutz of the Washington-based Nature Conservancy said China's announcement was "a step in the right direction."

"China is creating expectations for Copenhagen, even if it has not delivered yet," he added.

But Michael Levi, of the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think-tank, was cooler towards Hu's speech.

"Given the amount of PR for the speech it was rather disappointing," he noted. "The silver lining may be that they would be now under pressure to put a number on 'the notable margin' he talked about.

"It's useful to talk about these targets, ultimately what matters is the policies that take you up there," Levi added.

Gore also hailed as "terrific" Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's address to the summit and said he was "encouraged" by the Japanese leader's pledge to step up aid for developing nations.

Making his first international appearance since his center-left government took charge, Hatoyama pledged that Japan would cut emissions by 25 percent by 2020 compared with the 1990 level, a goal far more ambitious than the previous government's eight percent.

Striking a pessimistic note, Mohamed Nasheed, president of the small Indian Ocean archipelago of Maldives that fears being submerged by rising water levels, meanwhile predicted that nations would quickly forget climate change once they leave New York.

"Once the rhetoric has settled and the delegates have drifted away, the sympathy fades, the indignation cools and the world carries on as before," Nasheed said. "A few months later, we come back and repeat the charade."

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