"The United States will host a meeting of major economies on April 18-19 in Washington to advance talks on a global deal to fight climate change, the top U.S. climate negotiator said on Wednesday.

Todd Stern told Reuters Washington hoped U.N. climate talks in 2010 would lead to agreements on six outstanding issues, including financing for poor countries' pollution-control efforts, but he was unsure whether a legally binding deal to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases would be reached by the end of this year.

The Major Economies Forum, which helped nudge big emitters to support a now agreed goal of limiting global warming to less than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels, was not intended to be a negotiating forum to replace the United Nations, Stern said, reiterating U.S. policy."

Jeff Mason and Richard Cowan report for Reuters April 8, 2010. [2]