Australia said the Jan. 11-12 meeting of the group, which grew from a brainstorming meeting of 20 countries on climate change in Britain at the start of the year, would be attended by foreign, energy and environment ministers from the six nations.

Officials in Canberra initially said the talks would be held in the southern city of Adelaide in November this year, but attempts to arrange the talks proved too difficult.

According to figures released by the partnership, the six founding partners of the new pact account for 45 percent of the world's population, 48 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and 48 percent of the world's energy consumption.

The pact, dubbed "beyond Kyoto", has been described as complimentary to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions that the United States and Australia have refused to ratify.

Both nations say Kyoto could threaten economic growth and that excluding large developing nations such as China and India from meeting emissions targets did not make sense.

Delegates at the Nov. 28-Dec. 9 UN climate talks in Montreal said on Thursday that ministers from more than 90 nations were close to agreeing on a negotiating plan - without a firm timetable - to extend Kyoto beyond 2012.