An international academic organization said on Tuesday it had chosen a Chinese research body with a focus on climate and environmental change as one of its centers of excellence.

The International Center for Climate and Environment Sciences (ICCES), which is a division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), was elected by the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) as a result of Chinese scientists' contribution to climate research and international collaboration.

IAP director Wang Huijun told a COMSATS coordinating council meeting that opened on Tuesday: "In cooperating with the rest of the world in climate and environmental research, the ICCES encourages research collaboration between developed and developing countries."

The meeting runs through June 26.

COMSATS executive director Hameed Ahmed Khan said: "COMSATS research partnerships address problems of big social and economic impact, and the establishment of centers of excellence will push forward sustainable development in the South."

The council members are expected to discuss how to coordinate research plans among participants in the next fiscal year.

Lin Zhaohui, ICCES executive director, said the priority of research would be on climate change and related issues, with an emphasis on cooperation among developing countries.

Beijing-based ICCES is a leading research body that deals with climate change, earth systems, climate and hydrological predictions, weather disaster forecasts and ecological mechanisms.

At the urging of Pakistani Nobel laureate Abdus Salam, the COMSATS was established in 1994 in Islamabad.

China was a founding member of the multilateral body, which includes 23 sponsor nations including Brazil, Egypt, Nigeria, Turkey and the Philippines.

In the past 14 years, the commission has organized and coordinated research on the environment, energy, public health, population and education.

Cai Jianing, an official from the Ministry of Science and Technology, said: "Research cooperation will be a stimulus to wider cooperation among developing countries and enhance our competitiveness and risk resistance."

(Xinhua News Agency June 25, 2008)