Obama: China must act on climate change

SYDNEY (AP) - U.S. President Barack Obama says the world cannot wait for China to commit to tackling global warming.

Obama was speaking in an interview with Australian television broadcast Thursday ahead of a trip to Asia next month.

Asked specifically about China's commitment to curbing greenhouse emissions, Obama told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the impulse of the Asian giant's leaders at the moment was to let developed countries deal with the problem first.

He said that "the point we have tried to make is that we can't allow China to wait."

China and the United States are among the world's largest emitters of the gases that cause global warming, though Obama said "no two countries can dictate a solution" to the problem.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SYDNEY (AP) - President Barack Obama has reaffirmed his plans to start withdrawing U.S troops from Afghanistan in 2011.

Speaking in an interview with Australian television broadcast Thursday, Obama said of Afghanistan that United States and its allies "can't be there in perpetuity."

Obama told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that he did not agree that the situation in Afghanistan was getting worse, saying the Taliban's momentum had been "blunted" since he came to office.

But winning the nearly nine-year-old war remained a difficult task, he said.

The interview comes ahead of a planned trip by Obama to Australia and Indonesia in June.