China will continue urging for an extension of the Kyoto Protocol at next week's climate change talks in Doha , but has ruled out joining a multi-party carbon trading market for now, Beijing 's top climate negotiator said Wednesday.

Xie Zhenhua said he hopes the protocol, in which developed countries agree to binding targets to cut carbon emissions, will be extended through 2020, after which a new global climate-control treaty could go into effect.

"We would like to see a legally binding second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol, and for those [developed countries] who won't join the treaty, we hope they undertake comparable emissions cuts that abide by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change," Mr. Xie, who is vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planning body, said at a news conference in Beijing.

China has long tried to negotiate an extension to the Kyoto Protocol, and Mr. Xie's views echo those of India . The South Asian country's top climate negotiator said Tuesday that it would join other developing countries such as China , Brazil and South Africa to negotiate an extension to the Kyoto Protocol.

The protocol, adopted in 1997, set out legally binding emission-reduction targets for developed countries, but excluded developing ones such as China . The U.S. never ratified the pact.

Mr. Xie stopped short of saying that China could commit to legally binding targets for emissions cuts after 2020, but said the country was "open to negotiations."

Mr. Xie defended China 's record on climate control, saying the country reached its goal to cut carbon intensity by 20% between 2006 and 2010 and is on its way to meeting a goal of reducing carbon intensity by 17% between 2011 and 2015.

By 2020, China plans to further reduce its carbon intensity by up to 45% from 2005 levels. Carbon intensity is the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of gross domestic product.

As part of the efforts to reduce emissions, China in November began rolling out a potentially nationwide carbon-trading scheme in seven provinces and cities. However, it isn't ready to join a global carbon-trading market, Mr. Xie said. " Australia , the European Union and the U.S. have approached us to participate in a bilateral or regional carbon-trading market, but I think at this stage, China will first focus on its domestic market."

Mr. Xie acknowledged that China is the largest carbon emitter in the world and that its emissions are rapidly rising due to its economic growth. However, China 's carbon intensity levels are still on par with other countries, he said.

Separately, China is set to reform its consumption and resource tax systems with environmental goals in mind, according to China 's finance minister Xie Xuren.

China will begin levying consumption taxes on resource-intensive and polluting goods, and it will include coal and water in a new resource-tax system, said Mr. Xie, the finance minister, in an article posted Wednesday on the finance ministry's website. He didn't provide a specific time frame for the tax changes.

Meanwhile, China 's leadership has set ambitious targets to cap domestic coal consumption in order to reduce pollution and cut emissions.

However, a recent study from the World Resources Institute showed that a total of 363 coal-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 558,000 megawatts are currently being proposed by Chinese companies, mainly state-owned. That is close to one-third of all coal-fired power plants currently being planned worldwide, the study said.

While it remains uncertain that all of these will be realized as public opposition is increasing and many approved projects have already been delayed, the number of proposed plants fits poorly into China 's plans to curb emissions.

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