July 9 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. dollar will remain the world’s main reserve currency, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said at the Group of Eight summit today.

“Despite whatever talk you might have heard, I don’t see that there is movement away from the notion of the dollar being that currency,” Gibbs told reporters at a briefing at the start of the second day of the three-day meeting in L’Aquila, Italy.

Gibbs was responding to questions after President Barack Obama held bilateral talks with Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, at the summit of the world’s top industrialized nations.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other emerging-market leaders have suggested alternative reserve currencies in a bid to reduce exposure to the dollar. Gibbs said the subject didn’t come up during the Obama-Lula talks.

“There are a lot of people that have talked about it, but we don’t think that’s really serious,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in an interview with Bloomberg Television outside Moscow yesterday.

Obama and Lula discussed the possible resumption of global trade talks, known as the Doha Round, and also Iran, financial regulation, the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and the rift between emerging and developed countries over climate change.

Shoulder the Cost

Lula has joined other leaders of emerging nations calling on wealthier countries to shoulder more of the cost of reducing greenhouse gases.

Brazil, China and India demand that clear interim targets first be set for industrialized countries, which they blame for the bulk of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, raising global temperatures.

Obama is leading today’s G-8 meeting of the world’s biggest polluters, held under the banner of the Major Economies Forum, to advance efforts toward an accord.

“I’m not entirely sure that we expected to come here and have 8 to 10 years of disagreement wash away in a couple of days in July in Italy,” Gibbs said. “Everybody understands this is going to take some time.”

‘It’s Hard’

Obama believes “it’s hard” to ask emerging nations to cut carbon emissions when there are questions whether the U.S. will, Gibbs said. The U.S. is now “taking steps” to reduce greenhouse gases, Gibbs said, citing legislation that passed the House of Representatives last month, though it still must pass the Senate.

Enactment of a U.S. law will add political pressure on China, India and Brazil “to also take those steps,” Gibbs said.

“What you saw happen in the U.S. will help move countries throughout the world,” he said.

The meeting with Lula was a substitute for talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, who canceled attending the G-8 and returned to China to deal with riots and ethnic violence in the northwestern province of Xinjiang.

To contact the reporters on this story: Roger Runningen in L’Quila, Italy, at rrunningen@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 9, 2009 08:21 EDT