Canberra - The French president has told Australia's prime minister that countries should make their own decisions on how to achieve any binding greenhouse gas reduction targets that emerge from a United Nation's climate change conference in Paris next year.
The Australian government has been widely criticised by green groups for repealing in July a two-year-old carbon tax levied on Australia's worst industrial carbon gas polluters aimed at reducing to the nation's greenhouse emissions.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he raised climate change in discussions on Wednesday with President Francois Hollande, who is the first French head of state to make an official visit to Australia.
Hollande says he wants a global agreement to be reached at the Paris conference in September on binding targets to reduce countries' emissions. - Sapa-AP