China and India have sworn they will cooperate toward an international treaty that would include limiting the fossil fuel emissions of industrialized nations as well as emerging economies like theirs.

The promise came as delegates attending the United Nations climate talks in Durban, South Africa, agreed Sunday to extend the Kyoto Protocol, the only ratified international treaty limiting greenhouse gases.

The Kyoto Protocol focused on to control the fuel emissions of already industrialized nations, and developing nations such as China and India had no commitments under Kyoto. The earlier version effectively allowed the poorest nations to evade commitments and regulations on coal burning emissions while the industrialized nations take up most of the burden to clean up the atmosphere.

The United States cited the issue in refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

Experts had earlier said involving developing economies into the program is crucial since Kyoto controls only a third of greenhouse gas emissions. China and India have become two of the world's three biggest polluters since the pact was agreed in 1997.

"Historic is the word," Dessima Williams, Grenadian ambassador and lead negotiator for a coalition of 42 island nations, was quoted by Bloomberg News as saying. "The idea that we got everybody to agree to take some form of legal commitment is a major outcome."

Delegates from the more than 190 nations, mainly national environment ministers, will now start developing a document with "legal force" by 2015 that would curb pollution for all nations. They are also expected to bring the treaty into effect from 2020.

"This is a breakthrough decision," Tomasz Chruszczow of Poland, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, said. "Efforts to fight climate change will be made by all countries, not only the EU. This won't happen right now, but a process has been started."

Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels hit a high last year, with the present year on track to be the 11th warmest ever. Global sea levels are rising as glaciers melt away from Tibet to the Alps, Andes and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Island nations have been anxious how the continued melting and sea level rise will risk the disappearance of their countries.