RUSUTSU, Japan (AP):

The world's top powers took aim at climate change and economic instability yesterday, endorsing a goal of halving the world's greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and warning that rising food and oil prices jeopardise the global economy.

The Group of Eight (G-8) nations, accounting for nearly 60 per cent of the world economy, face mounting pressure to take decisive action to resolve the globe's most pressing financial problems and help stem a potentially disastrous rise in world temperatures.

In a communiqué on the second day of a three-day summit, G-8 members said they supported the goal of chopping gas emissions at least in half by mid-century, in a move to rejuvenate United Nations-led talks on forging a new global warming pact by the end of next year.

The G-8 countries - the United States, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy - also called on all major nations such as China and India to join in the effort to stem the potentially dangerous rise in world temperatures.

"This global challenge can only be met by a global response, in particular, by the contributions from all major economies," the G-8 said in a joint, five-page communiqué on climate.

The G-8 last year at a summit in Germany pledged to seriously consider the same target, and this year's Japanese hosts had hoped to solidify that commitment at the current meeting in Toyako, northern Japan.

The United States and the European Union hailed the accord as significant progress in pushing forward UN-led talks aimed at forging a new international global warming pact by the end of next year. But environmentalists and some developing nations said the pact fell short of the need for rich countries to set shorter-term targets for 2020.