Obama offers U.S. greenhouse gas cut

By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States unveiled a plan to cut greenhouse gases by 2020 on Wednesday and said President Barack Obama will attend U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen next month -- before other world leaders show up.

Obama would go to the December 7-18 talks in Copenhagen on December 9, the eve of a ceremony in nearby Oslo to collect the Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. He would not return, however, for the final days when most hard bargaining is likely.

Washington said it would promise in Copenhagen a cut in greenhouse gases of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, a cut of about 3 percent below the benchmark year used in U.N. treaties.

The United States is the last major industrialised country to offer a target for cutting greenhouse gases in a U.N.-led drive to slow rising world temperatures that could bring more heatwaves, desertification, floods and raise sea levels.

The White House said it hoped Obama's attendance would give momentum to the Copenhagen talks.

U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer told reporters in Germany: "It's critical that President Obama attends the climate change summit in Copenhagen. If he can deliver on his election campaign statements that Copenhagen needs to be a success by coming to Copenhagen himself, that I think will be critical to a good outcome."

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said: "I am pleased the American president will visit Copenhagen. The strong commitment of the American president to the climate change issue is very valuable."

'RIGHT CITY, WRONG DATE'