"The IEA clearly knows that China is going to have to increase its energy consumption considerably and thus its CO2 emissions in the coming years," said IEA chief Claude Mandil.

"Our scenarios take into account China's future," he added, "What we are asking of China -- and it is doing so already -- is for it to reduce its ... energy consumption per production unit."

Mandil spokes on the sidelines of the annual UN climate change conference here.

Monday, the head of the Chinese delegation Gao Feng said "there are some who say we should reduce our energy consumption, That is unacceptable and totally wrong," he told AFP pointing at the IEA.

"In the long term," Mandil said, by around 2050, "all of the world's countries must lower their CO2 emissions considerably" to have a chance at stabilizing the greenhouse effect.

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