United Nations, July 30 - China must lead the global fight against climate change, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said here after a trip to that country.

'I wanted to highlight the special responsibility of countries like China to lead the global fight against climate change,' he told UN correspondents.

China is the world's fastest-growing economy and its leading emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG). Coal, the primary source of main GHG carbon dioxide, accounts for 70 percent of China's energy consumption.

The tour involved launching a programme of energy saving lighting that could cut down China's energy consumption by eight percent. Ban praised this effort, and returned with assurances of collaboration at the upcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen.

'I was pleased that President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao assured me that China wants to seal a deal in Copenhagen in December and that China will play an active and constructive role in the negotiations to achieve this end,' he said.

The Copenhagen conference is expected to strengthen the 1997 Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing GHG emissions, after the first term of the protocol ends in 2012.