Participants at the International Meeting on Environmentally Friendly Vehicles called Friday for voluntary partnerships among automobile-related industries to promote the development and proliferation of low-emission cars.
But participants at the two-day conference in Tokyo failed to agree on numerical targets relating to the development of these cars.
In this regard, they stated that an internationally recognized standard for low-emission vehicles has yet to be defined, according to conference Chairman Hiroshi Maruyama, chief of the transport ministry's Road Transport Bureau.
Japan had hoped to establish targets of this kind.
In a statement on behalf of the participants, Maruyama underscored the importance of setting these targets in the future to send a strong message to the market.
Participants agreed to meet again in 2005.
The meeting, the first of its kind, was attended by senior officials from 15 major car manufacturing and user countries, the European Union, and three international organs.