Wen, in an unusual move for a Chinese leader, began a speech at a China-EU business summit -- where he addressed an audience including European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso -- by quoting the world conservation strategy.

"We have not inherited the earth from our parents. We have borrowed it from our children, to leave to future generations a planet where they can survive and thrive," Wen said in the eastern city of Nanjing.

The speech gave a hint of what the world can expect from China when world leaders gather in Copenhagen from December 7 for UN talks on tackling global warming beyond 2012.

Wen will represent China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

He spoke at the business forum after concluding a summit with European Union leaders. The EU said at the conclusion of the talks that Chinese leadership was essential in facing climate change.

Wen's speech laid out China's green policies, but was also an apparent effort to counter the widely held view that the Asian giant has put immediate economic development ahead of the long-term health of its environment.

"We need to put in place a sustainable system of national economy that generates high output with low input, low consumption and low emissions," Wen said.

"We need to transform the existing patterns of development and consumption and move the world to a development path characterised by high productivity, prosperous lives and sound ecology to create a better home for the human race," he added, vowing to play an active and constructive role in Copenhagen.

Beijing said last week that by 2020 it would curb emissions per unit of gross domestic product by between 40 and 45 percent compared to 2005 levels.

The pledge was not to cut greenhouse gas emissions but was essentially a vow of greater energy efficiency that would see China's emissions continue to grow along with its economy.

Wen said China was pursuing other "voluntary" measures such as massive reforestation projects, making coal-fired electricity plants cleaner and more efficient, and increasing its nuclear and hydroelectric power capacity.

He reasserted China's stance that developed nations should bear most of the cost of tackling climate change, saying their industrialisation over the past 200 years came at "a great cost to the resources and ecology of the whole world."

Wen appealed to the EU to relax restrictions on the transfer of clean energy technology so that China could adopt more of it. Some European companies are concerned their intellectual property would not be safe in China.

"The EU is at the cutting edge of energy efficient and environmentally friendly technologies," Wen said. "We're ready to learn from you."

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