The resolution on climate change, however, did not lay out specific actions to be taken.

California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told the governors at their annual meeting in Sedona, Arizona, that they must work harder on the greenhouse problem.

"On global warming we still come up short," Schwarzenegger said. "We've made progress in everyone seeing it's a serious problem. But unless we set specific goals and targets with specific ways to measure our performance, a resolution won't mean very much."

"We're long past the time when it's OK just to talk about these problems," he said.

The measure also urged Congress and the Bush administration to fund research on climate change and to support coordinated international research on the issue.

"California, in particular, has come to the point where we can look beyond coal and natural gas and focus on real energy solutions such as efficiency, wind, solar and geothermal power," said Bernadette Del Chiaro, spokeswoman for watchdog group Environment California.

A bill introduced in April in the California Legislature would make the state the first to order a limit on emissions of heat-trapping gases.

"This is a really good bill that will put some teeth behind the governor's goals," Del Chiaro said.

The measure, drafted by Democrat Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Democrat Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, aims to cut emissions from power plants, oil refineries, manufacturing industries and other large businesses by 25 percent by 2020.

Industries would have to report their emissions levels to the state beginning in 2008 with reductions of gases to begin in 2012.