Obama to Attend Climate Change Breakfast at APEC Summit

SINGAPORE -- President Obama will attend a hastily arranged climate change breakfast Sunday at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, a White House official said.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Mexican President Felipe Calderon organized what a White House official described as "an informal breakfast meeting on climate change" -- a meeting that was not part of the official APEC program.

Most of the 20 heads of state of the APEC-members are expected to attend, but no formal list of attendees is available.

Climate change is a big part of Obama's agenda on his first trip to Asia. In Tokyo, Obama and Japan's prime minister reaffirmed their commitment to a successful climate change conference in Copenhagen next month.

He arrived here from Tokyo where he met with Japan Emperor Akihito and, in a sign of respect,gave him a low bow

Obama will soon travel to Shanghai and Beijing in China and Seoul, South Korea before returning to the United States on Nov. 19. China and the U.S. are the largest emitters of greenhouse gases on earth.

The breakfast was added to Obama's schedule upon his arrival here Saturday night to attend the formal APEC dinner.

The Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen will also attend the breakfast, though Denmark is not an APEC member. Rasmussen leads the Conference of the Parties of 15, which is the overseeing body of UN-sponsored climate change talks aimed at developing global limits to greenhouse gas emissions at the conference in Copenhagen.

"The purpose of the meeting is to review where the (climate change) negotiations stand and the path forward," a White House official said.

Climate change negotiations have already bogged down and realists predict no global pact this December, prompting open recognition of the need for another conference in 2010.

Obama is expected to press Chinese leader Hu Jintao to consider deeper greenhouse gas emission reductions to kick-start stalled global warming talks. One problem for Obama is the Democratically-controlled Senate has yet to move a House-passed climate change bill to the floor. The Senate will not act until pending health care legislation is finalized.