APEC to vow stimulus; tries to push climate change

By Dean Yates

SINGAPORE, (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific leaders will pledge on Sunday to keep stimulus policies in place to stop the world from sliding back into recession, wrapping up a summit that has been dogged by accusations of U.S. trade protectionism.

President Barack Obama arrived in Singapore late on Saturday, missing most of the day's formal talks and speeches where several leaders suggested the world's largest economy was hampering free trade through policies such as "Buy America" campaigns.

Speaking in Tokyo before he arrived, Obama called for a new strategy to rebalance global growth, referring to the excessive consumption in the United States and the over-reliance on exports from some countries that many blame for the economic crisis.

Leaders from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum will vow to "maintain our stimulus policies until a durable economic recovery has taken hold", according to a draft of their final statement, to be issued later on Sunday.

APEC is the last major gathering of global decision-makers before a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen in three weeks meant to ramp up efforts to fight climate change.

Those negotiations have largely stalled, but a U.S. official said Obama had backed a two-step plan by the Danish prime minister to aim for an operational agreement and to leave legally binding details until later.

The APEC draft earlier dropped a reference to emissions reductions of 50 percent by 2050, and pledged instead to "substantially" cut carbon pollution by 2050.

The statement said job creation would be at the heart of economic policy, a hot topic as unemployment has risen across the industrialised world and put pressure on governments to act.