Asia-Pacific leaders overcame differences on climate change on Saturday to agree to take action against greenhouse gases at a key summit protected by the tightest security in Australian history.
As thousands of anti-war protesters took to the streets, the 21 leaders - including the presidents of China, the United States and Russia - held talks under the huge shells of Sydney's iconic Opera House. They worked behind closed doors on a series of issues from terrorism and North Korea to food safety and intellectual piracy.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who had made climate change a focus of the summit, said they agreed on "aspirational" goals to curb emissions and that all countries - regardless of wealth - should contribute. He called it "a very important milestone towards a sensible international agreement" bringing in both rich and poor nations.
But there were no binding commitments, and Greenpeace campaigner Catherine Fitzpatrick dismissed the statement as almost meaningless. "Without supporting binding targets for developed countries," she added, "which is where the rubber really hits the road in climate action, it really looks like a political stunt."
Their statement notably includes the aim of reducing energy intensity by at least 25 percent by the year 2030 and increasing forest cover across the Apec zone.
In central Sydney, around 5,000 protesters - some kitted out as kangaroos and polar bears - beat drums and blew whistles in a rally mainly targeting US President George W. Bush. A big banner carried by one group read: "War criminals not welcome here - Bush go home."
Scuffles left two police officers with head injuries, one hit with an iron bar and the other with a dart, and a total of 17 protesters were arrested. "I am not happy that police were targeted and assaulted in such a violent manner," state police commissioner Andrew Scipione said.
However the march, which the police had warned could erupt into riots, was otherwise peaceful. At the Opera House, choppers buzzed overhead and security forces patrolled the land and water as leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum gathered. Together, the Apec economies account for nearly half of world trade and 56 percent of global output, as well as just over half of its population.
The leaders are expected on Sunday to issue a call for urgent action to break the deadlock at stalled World Trade Organisation talks on cutting tariffs and other barriers to global commerce.
The build-up to the summit has also been a chance for some of the world's most powerful people to meet each other in face-to-face talks. Bush met his Chinese and Russian counterparts Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin and earlier Saturday held his first three-way security talks with Howard and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
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