Portuguese Foreign Minister Luiz Amado Monday urged the European Union (EU) to take a strong and ambitious position at the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, according to news reaching Lisbon.

While attending a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, Amado said thatit was possible to reach an agreement on the goal of reducing 20 percent greenhouse gas emission, which was responsible for the global warming.

"The EU has the responsibility of leading this process for all what it has done and for all what its people aspire to do about it," he said.

The EU pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emission by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. The target could be extended to 30 percent in case other industrialized countries make the same efforts.

"It think it is excessively ambitious, however we will see if it is possible to go beyond the 20 percent," Amado said.

The UN Climate Change Conference opened on Monday in Copenhagen, where delegates from more than 190 countries will try to seal a deal that is expected to slow rising world temperatures that could bring more heat, expanding deserts, floods and rising sea levels.

(Xinhua News Agency December 8, 2009)