Asian leaders promote green region, nuclear power

Leaders from 10 Southeast Asian nations, along with their counterparts from Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, are to release the statement when they meet Wednesday for the East Asia summit.

In the draft, the leaders pledge to work towards an "aspirational goal of increasing cumulative forest cover in the region by at least 15 million hectares (37 million acres) of all types of forests by 2020".

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders, in a separate statement to be issued after their summit on Tuesday, will pledge to increase forest cover by at least 10 million hectares within the same timeframe.

The United Nations warned earlier this year that illegal logging by foreign firms could lead to a 98 percent loss of Southeast Asia's tropical rain forests by 2022, threatening endangered wildlife and the livelihoods of local peoples.