The US has agreed a new pact with India, China, Korea and Australia to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions through the development of new technologies.

In a new deal that some feel could jeopardise the much-vaunted Kyoto protocol, the countries have agreed to limit emissions through improving green technologies, including boosting the development of fuel cell vehicles.

The multilateral agreement is seen as an alternative to the United Nations-backed Kyoto protocol, which obliges 35 industrialised nations to axe emissions of greenhouse gases by an average of five per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.

Australia and the US – the world's biggest polluter – refuse to sign up to the Kyoto deal, claiming the pact would impede domestic economic growth, and as such have developed the new agreement to concentrate on the importance of green technology.

At the summit in G8 summit Gleneagles, Scotland, earlier this month US president George Bush made the case for more research into modern technologies, such as alternative fuel sources and ways to prevent carbon dioxide reaching the atmosphere, to help developing nations cut harmful greenhouse gas emissions.