SYDNEY, Australia &#8212 Pacific Rim leaders agreed Saturday to tackle global warming by improving energy use and forest management, as thousands of demonstrators rallied to demand the governments do more.

Some experts and activists dismissed the program as too modest to be effective. But Australia and the United States hope to influence upcoming U.N. negotiations on climate change.

“The world needs to slow, stop and then reverse the growth of global greenhouse gas emissions,” the 21 leaders said in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum’s Sydney Declaration on Climate Change, Energy Security and Clean Development.

The summit host, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, said its participants had “charted a new international consensus for the region and the world.”

“A great challenge for our region is to balance our energy needs with action to address the threat of climate change posed by greenhouse gas emissions,” Howard said.

Police, who had warned of potential violence and been given special search powers by the local government, had only minor scuffles with demonstrators. Nine protesters were arrested and two officers injured, police said.

The APEC climate change program brings together some of the world’s powerhouse economies and biggest polluters.

“If you have APEC, especially the largest emitters – the U.S., China, Russia, Japan – sign up to an agreement like that, it would be hard to ignore at the global level,” said Malcolm Cook of Sydney-based think-tank the Lowy Institute.