Security tightened up ahead of summit

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued an upbeat note on the eve of the landmark conference, predicting mankind would strike a blow against the 21st century's great peril.

The climax on December 18 ─ to be attended by more than 100 heads of state and government ─ should deliver a framework for a historic pact, he said.

“I am convinced that the conference in Copenhagen will give us a strong and important political accord which will then be the basis for an accord that is legally binding,” Ban told French television.

The December 7-18 conference gathers 192 nations under the flag of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (U.N.FCCC), the offshoot of the famous 1992 Rio summit.

Danish police on Sunday tightened security around the conference venue, the Bella Center, closing off access for about an hour to investigate a bomb alert.

Six thousand police ─ more than half of all the police in Denmark ─ are being deployed in the capital. They could be reinforced to 9,300 if need be, according to Mogens Lauridsen, head of operations at Copenhagen police.

Greenpeace's flagship, Arctic Sunrise, anchored in the harbour in central Copenhagen, unfurling a banner reading: “OUR CLIMATE ─ OUR FUTURE ─ YOUR DECISION.”

Nearby, a self-styled Alternative Climate Forum geared up to accommodate some 10,000 visitors per day, with 6,000 already on site.

In London, meanwhile, more than 100 environmental campaigners camped out overnight in Trafalgar Square, organisers said Sunday, adding that they intend to stay till the U.N. climate summit opened.

The goal is to deliver an accord that will ratchet up efforts against climate change, driven by uncontrolled emissions of heat-trapping carbon gases from fossil fuels.

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