The United States, Japan and Britain have proposed setting up a multilateral fund involving the World Bank that would help emerging economies to slash greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

"This is critical. None of us in the world are going to solve this problem unless we deal with it here," Paulson told a joint press conference with his British and Japanese counterparts and World Bank president Robert Zoellick.

The fund should help emerging countries such as China and India to remain key drivers of the global economy while also tackling emissions, said Paulson, who was attending a meeting of Group of Eight finance ministers here.

He said the United States was willing to host a donor meeting later this year to try to drum up contributions.

With food prices rising, climate change could hinder efforts to grow crops in developing nations, Zoellick said.

"Our first priority will be to help vulnerable countries learn how to integrate climate change considerations into their development strategies, and to adapt as necessary to climate changes," he said.

British finance minister Alistair Darling said the initiative should ease worries among developing nations, which already "see the need to act and act urgently."

But some environmental activists questioned whether the fund was the best way to help the developing world.

"The climate change problem was really created by developed nations. The money should be offered as compensation to developing and poor nations," Oxfam advocacy manager Takumo Yamada told AFP.

"Often, donor nations create frameworks with themselves at the centre. The programmes have to be driven by recipients, based on their real need."

The United States is the only major developed economy to reject the Kyoto Protocol, arguing that the landmark environmental plan is unfair as it makes no demands on fast-growing emerging economies.

Japan, despite being the home of the Kyoto Protocol, the landmark 1997 treaty that mandated cuts in greenhouse gas emissions heating up the planet, is far behind in meeting its Kyoto commitments.

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