DOHA, Qatar -- Leaders from China, India and Brazil said today they have no intention of beefing up their countries' greenhouse gas emissions targets before 2020.

Speaking at the annual U.N. climate change meeting being held in this fossil fuel-rich city of Land Rovers and construction cranes, major emerging powers said they want to see the United States promise deeper cuts.

But officials from three countries with rapidly rising emissions said in interviews that they should not be expected to reciprocate.

"Developed countries should take the lead in deep emission reduction cuts," said Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission.

Asked if the so-called BASIC countries -- Brazil, South Africa, India and China -- will raise their levels of ambition in curbing climate change, Xie said that developing countries account for 70 percent of the targets that nations set at the 2009 Copenhagen, Denmark, climate summit.

"Within this 70 percent, BASIC made a great contribution," he said.

The call to raise ambition beyond what countries pledged in Copenhagen to accomplish by 2020 is a rallying cry at this year's talks, though the focus is almost entirely on industrialized nations.

The United States pledged in Copenhagen to curb carbon about 17 percent below 2005 levels by the end of this decade. U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern said the country is on track toward meeting that goal, crediting Obama administration efficiency measures and a natural gas revolution. Several environmental groups said today that the data underpinning U.S. claims are incomplete and that new action will be needed to hit the target.

In the meantime, leaders are pushing the United States, the European Union and others to promise even bigger cuts before the decade's end.

"Richer countries should take leadership, and the United States can play and should play a very important role," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.

Stern and Deputy U.S. Envoy Jonathan Pershing have said several times they do not expect countries to hike their Copenhagen targets. And with no movement in sight in Congress on carbon cuts, the U.S. team will not make any new mitigation targets in Doha.

Neither, it seems, will other big and growing polluters.

India's chief negotiator, R.R. Rashmi, said the fight over the Kyoto Protocol needs to be closed before India makes future promises.

"We don't see any finality of that process yet," he said.

The first phase of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol ends this year, and diplomats are battling over who will join a second commitment period, and for how long. That treaty obligates only industrialized countries to cut carbon, allowing a wide range of developing countries to take voluntary targets. For that reason, the United States is not a party to Kyoto.

While countries have agreed to start talks toward a 2020 agreement that would obligate all nations, including the United States and China, developing countries say extending the Kyoto Protocol for now is a top priority, as it is the only existing legally binding treaty to deal with climate change.

Still, Rahsmi said, even if the Kyoto fight is resolved in Doha, countries should not expect anything new from India. "Don't prejudge," he said.

China in Copenhagen pledged to cut emissions intensity -- the level of emissions per unit of economic activity -- between 40 and 45 percent below 2005 levels by the end of this decade. India said it would cut its emission intensity 20 to 25 percent, also below 2005 levels this decade.

Brazil, meanwhile, has vowed to cut carbon to 36 percent below business as usual by 2030, and the country's emissions have been on a steady downward trajectory.

"I challenge any commitment that was deeper than the commitment that my country took," said Brazilian Ambassador Luiz Alberto Figueiredo.

"When we talk about ambition, we certainly think that everyone should take a hard look at it. We did, and we know we are doing much more than probably anyone else," he said.

Plan from island states

Despite the bluster from countries large and small, there may actually be some practical work happening behind the scenes.

Small island nations, which have been fighting the hardest for nations to raise their targets, have submitted a work plan that would call on countries to meet regularly and discuss sector by sector where new cuts are possible.

According to sources involved in a discussion today, both the United States and the European Union were open to the plan.