Climate change special envoy Todd Stern also insisted the United States still had a major role to play in the battle against global warming, despite its failure to get a bill cutting greenhouse gas emissions through Congress.

Stern said after a high-level international meeting on climate change here that nations would seek progress on non-binding "decisions" at the talks in Cancun, Mexico, which some experts believe will produce another stalemate.

"No one is anticipating or expecting in any way a legal treaty to be done in Cancun this year," he said.

"The focus at this point is on a set of decisions on the core issues," Stern said after talks among 17 nations responsible for 80 percent of carbon emissions.

The two-day Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate in late November was set up by US President Barack Obama to follow up last year's climate summit in Copenhagen, which ended in disappointment and without a binding deal.

"I think there are many participants that want to get a binding agreement within a reasonable time. I just don't see that in the cards for the Cancun meeting," Stern said.

"Expectations are not too high, but they are not low," Stern said, summing up the mood among climate negotiators ahead of the meeting at the Mexican resort.

Stern added the New York talks had revealed "broad agreement on the importance of making progress in Cancun" on climate mitigation, transparency, deforestation and financing for developing countries.

After the acrimony and bitterness of the Copenhagen summit last December, Stern said the Cancun meeting would revert to the level of ministers and senior foreign ministry officials, with no world leaders expected.

Despite the White House's failure to pass a climate change bill, and the dim prospects for such action, Stern said Obama was sticking by his pledge to cut emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

He said the administration would rely on other tools to meet the target, including the use of Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

Stern also dismissed the notion that the Obama administration's failure to enact climate legislation devalued its role in the search for a new deal to replace the Kyoto Treaty -- which Washington did not ratify.

"The voice of the United States is always important. It is important for the United States to put in place its own full scale plan for low carbon energy and reducing greenhouse gases," he said.

"The more we can do that, we will have an even stronger voice in these discussions."

The House of Representatives did pass a climate bill that would have set up a cap-and-trade system to regulate carbon emissions.

But the Senate effort to pass a watered-down bill collapsed and with polls pointing to Republican gains in mid-term elections in November, many experts believe hopes for a climate bill are dead, at least in the short term.

That inaction drew complaints from European Union climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard in a speech in the United States on Monday.

"Until action is taken in the US, others have an excuse -- valid or not -- for not coming along," Hedegaard said at the Harvard Kennedy School on Monday.

"Legislation is an important signal of political commitment.

"Many countries are asking themselves why they should take action as long as the biggest emitter in the developed world is unwilling to live up to its global responsibilities."

Hedegaard also said the European Union would be prepared to sign a binding climate accord in Cancun, though regretted that some other nations would not.

Environment ministers from 45 countries are also scheduled to meet in Geneva in September at the invitation of the Swiss and Mexican governments.

And negotiators from the 194 signatories to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change are to meet in Tianjin, China for a final preparatory round of talks in October.

The New York talks included representatives from Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, and the United States.

The November 29-December 10 meeting in Cancun aims to revive negotiations with an eye to sealing an elusive climate treaty in a year's time.

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