Ministers from the Group of Eight and leading developing countries are meeting in the German city of Potsdam to prepare for a G8 summit in June. And not surprisingly, climate change is at the top of the agenda.

Environment ministers gathered on Friday said they believed the United States would inevitably fall into line with the rest of the world in the push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.

British Environment Secretary David Miliband told the meeting he believed it was a matter of when, not if, the United States would join the global drive to reduce emissions., Germany's Sigmar Gabriel agreed.

Gabriel said the aim of the Potsdam meeting was not to produce documents but to explore ways of bridging the wide gap between the positions of the industrialized and developing countries.

The United States pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol in 2001. Developing countries are refusing to budge on their own emissions control as long as the United States maintains its negative stance on the Kyoto Protocol.

However, Washington has been hinting that it may be re-evaluating its position on carbon emissions.

Gabriel said it was imperative that all the ministers come to an agreement on climate protection ahead of the December meeting of the world's environment ministers in Bali, Indonesia.

"There has to be progress made on climate protection. We can't let it end in 2012," he told reporters, referring to the Kyoto Protocol.

Canada's Environment Minister John Baird said ahead of the meeting that he planned to outline the government's greenhouse-gas policies and look ahead to new negotiations to go beyond the Kyoto agreement.

Meanwhile, members of Greenpeace demonstrated outside, waving placards bearing messages for the ministers at the climate talks.

Within sight of the conference, eight activists stood shoulder-high in the River Havel holding signs reading "Stop talking -- act now!" in each of the G8 languages.