InsideJapan News Network

The Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama has urged nations at the Copenhagen climate change summit to "leave egoism aside" and work together to reach a global agreement on measures to tackle global warming.

Parts of a speech made at the summit published on Edie.net saw the prime minister state that coming to an agreement is important "for the sake of our children and grandchildren".

"If we can do this then we may make a major step forward today," he said.

Countries personal agendas needed to be put aside for the bigger picture of saving the planet, he urged.

Japan recently joined with the UK, US, France, Australia and Norway to make a pledge to donate a total of £2.1 billion over the next three years to try and tackle deforestation in the world's rainforests.

It is one of the 193 nations which are in attendance at the Denmark climate change summit, an event aimed at coming up with a plan to lower global greenhouse emissions.

Written by Mark Smith.