China said Monday that US goals for the Asia Pacific leaders' meeting in Hawaii this week were "too ambitious" and beyond the reach of developing economies in the fast-growing region.

US President Barack Obama will host the leaders of 20 other members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum including China, Japan and Russia at talks that will culminate on Sunday.

Some APEC members had already "expressed their difficulties and concerns" at US targets for lower tariffs on environmental products and for reductions in energy intensity, assistant foreign minister Wu Hailong told reporters.

The United States wants duties levied on green goods capped at five percent and member countries to reduce their energy intensity -- the amount of energy consumed per unit of GDP -- to 50 percent of 2005 levels by 2035, Wu said.

"It seems that the current goals put out by the US side are too ambitious and beyond the reach of developing economies," he told a media briefing ahead of the forum in Honolulu on November 12-13.

"We hope that all parties will demonstrate flexibility -- they need to pay attention to the different development stages of members of APEC, especially developing countries."

At a time of economic doldrums in developed nations and growing clout by China, Washington also hopes to use its APEC chairmanship to set the terms of a trans-Pacific deal that could breathe life into moribund global trade talks.

But Chinese assistant commerce minister Yu Jianhua cast doubt on the ability of some APEC members to reach the "high benchmarks" set for the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) grouping.

"Whether or not all those members will reach that very high benchmark, we will still have to wait and see," Yu said, adding that China had not been invited to join the partnership.

The TPP is an Asia-Pacific regional trade agreement being negotiated among the United States and eight other partners -- Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Chinese President Hu Jintao will attend the Hawaii summit where he is expected to meet with Obama as well as Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.