.RUSUTSU, Japan (AP) – The Group of Eight leading industrial nations on Tuesday endorsed halving world emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, edging forward in the battle against global warming but stopping short of tough, nearer-term targets.

The G-8 countries – the United States, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy – also called on all major economies to join in the effort to stem the potentially dangerous rise in world temperatures.

“The G-8 nations came to a mutual recognition that this target – cutting global emissions by at least 50 percent by 2050 – should be a global target,” said Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who announced the endorsement.

The G-8 last year at a summit in Germany pledged to consider the 2050 target, and this year’s Japanese hosts had hoped to solidify that commitment at the meeting in Toyako, northern Japan.

The G-8 has been under pressure to secure commitments by wealthy nations to push forward stalled U.N.-led talks on forging a new accord to battle global warming by the end of next year. Tuesday’s statement, however, addressed world emissions rather than just those produced by wealthy countries.