Once the United States finalises the civil nuclear agreement with India, it will help one of the world's fastest growing economies to meet the aspirations of its people by launching a second green revolution, American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Washington on Thursday.

Opening the US-hosted two-day meeting of the 'Major Economies on Energy Security and Climate Change' in Washington, she also said that global leaders now have a responsibility to forge a new international consensus on how to address climate change.    

"With India, we have negotiated an agreement to open a path of cooperation on civil nuclear energy and technology. Once finalised, this agreement will help one of the world's fastest-growing energy consumers to meet its people's economic aspirations by launching a second green revolution," Rice said in her inaugural address.

"And in Asia, we helped to bring the two largest developing countries -- China and India -- together with other regional states to form the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate. Working with major global leaders of private industry, our governments are seeking to share new technologies that can fuel economic development, and that is both sustainable and environmentally sound," she added.

"We've come together today because we agree that climate change is a real problem and that human beings are contributing to it. The best science tells us exactly this. Now it is our responsibility as global leaders to forge a new international consensus on how to address climate change," she said

The challenge of climate change has much in common with other issues like weapons proliferation, spread of disease and transnational terrorism, Rice said.

"These are truly global problems. And no one nation, no matter how much power or political will it possesses, can succeed alone. We all need partners and we all need to work in concert," she said.

 She said the US takes climate change very seriously, for "We are both a major economy and a major emitter."

"Climate change is a global problem and we are contributing to it. Therefore, we are prepared to expand our leadership to address the challenge," she added.

The two-day summit formally got underway in Washington, with India being represented by Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee. Besides India, 16 other nations are taking part in this initiative of the Bush administration.

Apart from Mukherjee, the Indian delegation includes India's ambassador to the US Ronen Sen, the prime minister's scientific advisor R Chidambaram and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.