By Arun Kumar. Washington, United States, 09:00 AM IST

President Barack Obama wants India and the United States to build a renewable energy partnership as they work together to find solutions to climate change issues.

Obama conveyed this to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's special envoy on climate change issues, Shyam Saran, during a meeting Monday with leaders of delegations to a meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate here.

Referring to his meeting with Manmohan Singh in London during the Group of 20 summit, Obama told Saran how encouraged and pleased he was with the exchange of views on various issues including energy and climate change.

The US was looking forward to working with India on climate change issues, Obama said, suggesting the two countries should seek to build a renewable energy partnership, Saran told reporters at the conclusion of the two-day gathering.

There was great potential of cooperation between the two sides as they look for what other ways they can collaborate in addition to things they were already doing together, he said.

Obama also told the delegation leaders that US has made climate change and energy its top priority and was now fully engaged and moving quickly to address global warming as it no longer doubts the urgency or magnitude of the climate change problem.

The president also emphasised that the US was not putting down any prescriptions and wanted to share how each was trying to find solutions to climate change issues.

The two day meeting here was the first of three preparatory sessions for a summit-level meeting of the forum set for July in Italy. That meeting in turn is aimed at generating a consensus for action in advance of the opening of global negotiations in Copenhagen in December on a successor to the Kyoto accord.

By Arun Kumar (Staff Writer, © IANS)