April 28 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. should be “as ambitious as possible” in setting greenhouse-gas emissions limits and seek reductions of almost 40 percent by 2020, India’s chief climate negotiator said.

President Barack Obama should aim for the high end of the 25 percent to 40 percent interim target the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has proposed, Shyam Saran, special envoy for India’s prime minister, told reporters today in Washington.

Saran’s recommendation compares with the 14 percent reduction from 2005 levels by 2020 that Obama called for in his budget proposal. Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has offered legislation that would mandate a 20 percent reduction by 2020.

Obama hosted a meeting in Washington yesterday and today of the world’s largest greenhouse-gas producers. The U.S. is the biggest, accounting for 21 percent of global emissions in 2005, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Saran led the Indian delegation to the gathering. India is the third or fifth largest greenhouse-gas emitter, depending on the method used for the tally, Saran said.

The lack of binding emissions-reduction targets for India and China has been cited by some members of Congress as a reason not to mandate U.S. restrictions on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

“The absence of credible commitments from China, India and other major developing countries would constitute a severe obstacle to climate-change legislation in the U.S. and elsewhere,” Senator Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, said at an April 22 hearing.

“We are not saying that we are not going to do anything,” Saran said today. He said India is working to reduce emissions from “business as usual” levels, if sufficient financial and technological support is available.

To contact the reporters on this story: Tina Seeley in Washington at tseeley@bloomberg.net; Simon Lomax in Washington at slomax@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 28, 2009 19:15 EDT