OTTAWA - Canada will use an Asia-Pacific partnership to try to bring the United States, China, India and other big greenhouse gas emitters into an eventual agreement on climate change, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Monday.

Harper told reporters at the United Nations that Canada has been invited to join the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, which also includes Australia, Japan and South Korea.

"These are discussions we want to get involved in because these are the people that have to get involved in an effective international protocol, or we won't have such a protocol," Harper said.

"This will be another international forum where Canada can pursue its objectives in terms of fighting climate change."

Former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore and other critics have panned the Asia-Pacific Partnership as a sham substitute for the Kyoto Protocol on climate change but advocates say it works for practical and realistic ways of fighting global warming.

It is dedicated to tackling climate change through cleaner energy technologies without sacrificing economic progress.

Ottawa remains a party to the Kyoto Protocol but Harper, whose Conservative government was elected last year, has said Canada would not be able to make the cuts of about 25 percent in emissions that would be required by next year without causing major economic dislocations.

Like the United States, Canada under Harper has said there is little point of a climate change agreement if China and India are not participants.