Pacific island nations make climate plea to UN

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Pacific island nations are comparing global warming to an "invading army'' in a plea to the UN Security Council to break the stalemate in negotiations over a legally binding global climate treaty.

The 11 nations wrote members of the UN's most powerful body on Thursday arguing the threat they face from a warmer world and rising sea levels is comparable to armed conflict. The Security Council oversees threats to international peace and security.

Nauru's UN Ambassador Marlene Moses said ``climate change can devastate a country just as thoroughly as an invading army'' and the international community would be complicit in the extinction of entire island nations if it fails to act.

She called rising temperatures the most dire security threat to the region, contributing to food and water shortages and already making refugees of people in Vanuatu, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands.

Samoa's UN Ambassador Aliioaiga Feturi Elisaia said the UN-led climate negotiations on how to cut greenhouse gases haven't kept pace with the severity of global warming, requiring the Security Council's urgent intervention.

- AP