LEAD: U.S. not to agree to G-8 carbon emission targets

(EDS: ADDING QUOTES IN 6TH, 8-10 TH GRAFS)

The United States cannot agree to long-term targets for curbing greenhouse gas emissions at the annual Group of Eight summit, an environmental adviser to President George W. Bush said Wednesday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is hosting the three-day G-8 summit in the Baltic coast resort of Heiligendamm, wants a deal on global cuts of greenhouse gases of 50 percent by 2050 to tackle global warming.

But James Connaughton, chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, said, ''At this point in time, we are not prepared to adopt that proposal,'' adding that any agreement should involve all major greenhouse gas emitters.

''We've not sat down with China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa. We have not sat down with Australia, South Korea and a number of the other major emitting countries on this issue,'' he told reporters.

''So until we've got everyone in the room and until we have consensus among all of them you won't see a collectively stated goal on that yet, but it's coming,'' Connaughton said.

''We are going to commit within the next 18 months to reach a global consensus on a long-term goal,'' he said. ''You should stay tuned for that.''

Last week, Bush announced his plan to convene a series of meetings with the world's largest emitters that would set a long-term global carbon emissions target by the end of 2008.

It was the most positive stance yet from the United States about reducing greenhouse gas emissions after the international first phase of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.

Despite its refusal to agree to long-term targets at the G-8 summit, Washington is not at loggerheads with Europe on the need to combat global warming, Connaughton said.

''It's actually a gross distortion to suggest competition here,'' he said. ''I could spend 20 minutes talking about the areas of agreement, and so this notion of competition is just flatly wrong.''

The G-8 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.