BRUSSELS: German Chancellor Angela Merkel called today for all countries to fix binding climate change targets next year at the latest, acknowledging that no such deal is likely at global talks in Copenhagen next month.

In a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, she said they were both worried that ambitions for countries to agree on cuts to greenhouse gas emissions at Copenhagen "seem to have shrunk".

"Next year, if possible during the first half, we must clinch a binding deal which will have international oversight of each country's obligations," she told reporters on the margins of an EU leaders' summit in Brussels.

Sarkozy said he and Merkel planned to attend the United Nations conference in Denmark on December 17-18 to push for a deal that limits global warming by no more than 2 degrees by 2050 and called on other EU heads of state to join them.

"We do not want a summit with bad compromises," he said. A panel of UN scientists has recommended that developed countries make emissions cuts between 25 and 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 to avoid a catastrophic rise in sea levels, harsher storms and droughts and climate disruptions.

The European Union has vowed to slash its emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 and to increase that to 30 per cent if other regions also agree to major reductions. Russia and Japan are promising a 25 per cent cut over the same period.

The US is considering a far smaller cut 17 per cent from 2005 levels or about 3.5 per cent from 1990.