India responded that any deal to combat global warming must allow emerging nations to continue economic growth.

"I expressed my hope and expectations for India to exercise leadership in a more positive way and with a broader perspective," foreign minister Hirofumi Nakasone said at a joint news conference with his Indian counterpart, S M Krishna.

Nakasone and Krishna held talks in Tokyo during the latter's four-day visit. Among other issues on the table were Myanmar, North Korea and piracy off the Somali coast, as well as bilateral economic cooperation.

Japan has been eager to get India's cooperation on persuading industrialized and emerging countries to smooth out differences over how to fight global warming ahead of a key meeting in Copenhagen in December, when participants hope to conclude a new, worldwide climate change pact.

The new agreement, a successor to the 1997 Kyoto protocol, is controversial because key industrial polluters such as the United States and Europe want newly emerging economies to also help cut global gas emissions.

But Krishna said the deal should be fair and allow developing nations to pursue economic growth to improve the lives of their people.

Climate scientists say warming weather will lead to widespread droughts, floods, higher sea levels and worsening storms.

Even a 3.6-degree Fahrenheit (2-degree Celsius) temperature rise could subject up to 2 billion people to water shortages by 2050, and threaten extinction for 20 percent to 30 percent of the world's species, according to a 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N. network of 2,000 scientists.

India and Japan signed an agreement on economic cooperation in October during a visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The deal includes Japan's 450 billion yen loan for a major freight railway project connecting Mumbai and the capital, New Delhi.

Economic ties between Asia's No. 1 and No. 3 economies have been growing steadily in recent years.

They plan to further boost India's economic development in the area of information technology. Among the projects is the New Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, an area designed to be a manufacturing and technological center for India.

"I am confident that these will become important symbols of our partnership," Krishna told reporters.

Japan's direct investment in India reached 178 billion yen (US$1.8 billion) last year, tripling from the previous year's nearly 60 billion yen (US$600 million), according to the Japanese government.

Krishna, who arrived in Tokyo late Thursday, was also set to meet Prime Minister Taro Aso on Friday. He meets Indians living in Japan on Saturday, and leaves Sunday.