BRUSSELS, Belgium - Eight Eastern European nations want the EU to ease targets for greenhouse-gas cuts because of the global economic crisis.

The leaders of Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia say they want the EU to rethink a plan to cut emissions by 20 percent by 2020.

They argue that Eastern European economies have greatly cut pollution already and Europe faces "serious economic and financial uncertainties."

They said as the EU opened a two-day summit Wednesday that the bloc must secure "economic development for all member states."

The EU adopted the greenhouse-gas emission plan last year and moved toward a cap-and-trade system that some businesses have complained is too costly.

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