Sunday, 28 Jan 2007 11:01 China is struggling to deal with the climate change implications of its booming economy, an official report has said.

Assessing the pace of the country's modernisation, the report says that China will become an industrialised country by 2015 but notes that, in terms of the environment, this fast-paced development will come at a price.

On the key indicator of what it calls "ecological modernisation" the report ranks China as 100th out of 118 developed and developing countries.

"Compared with social and economic modernisation, China's ecological modernisation lags far behind," He Chuanqi, director of the research group, said.

Western leaders have indicated their desire to engage China and other emerging economies like India in international agreements on carbon emissions; British prime minister Tony Blair yesterday told the World Economic Forum that their participation was vital.

"Any agreement that does not have binding commitments from America, China and India is one that cannot deliver," he said.

China's economic growth, which is expected to begin the transition from credit-led foreign investment to expansion through private consumption in the next few years, has taken pace at the breakneck speed of nearly ten per cent in the past decade.