Brussels, Sep 18 (DPA) The European Union (EU) has challenged rising powers India and China to brake their soaring greenhouse gas emissions in return for Western financial support.

'We need to make a credible financial commitment to the developing world. The equation is straightforward: no money, no deal, but if there are no actions, no money,' European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said at an informal EU summit in Brussels Thursday.

Next week, the leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) nations are set to meet in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with international funding for the fight against climate change high on the agenda.

According to estimates from the commission, the EU's executive, it will cost around 100 billion euros ($147 billion) per year by 2020 to fight climate change in developing countries.

Thursday's informal EU meeting echoed that estimate and a further call for quick-start money of 5 billion to 7 billion euros in aid to poorer countries per year up to 2012.

But in a clear challenge to rising powers such as Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa, EU leaders stated that 'this estimate presupposes appropriate mitigating actions by developing countries, especially those that are economically more advanced'.

Moreover, 'all countries, except the least developed', should help pay the world's poorest states to fight climate change, the EU summit statement said.

That is a clear tightening of early drafts of the document, which only called for 'ambitious mitigation reductions' around the world, without singling out any state or region.

The high-level EU and G20 meetings come in the countdown to a critical United Nations summit in Copenhagen, which is intended to seal a new global deal on fighting climate change.

EU leaders on Thursday were at pains to point out the urgency of finding a deal in December.