"We are deeply concerned that UK policy seems to be drifting away from supporting legally-binding UN agreements to cut greenhouse gas emissions," said a group of 27 leading scientists, politicians and environmentalists in an open letter to Blair ahead of the Montreal climate change conference.

They argued that addressing climate change through new technology, as Blair proposed at July's Gleneagles summit of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations, "is not a substitute for clear targets that force the pace of change".

Going further, they appealed to rich nations to "wake up to the threat that climate change poses to international development" by increasing world poverty and putting the UN Millennium Development Goals beyond reach.

The letter was spearheaded by Camilla Toulmin of the International Institute for Environment and Development, a London-based think tank on global environmental issues.

It was sent to Blair in light of Britain's turn at the presidencies of both the G8 and the 25-nation European Union.

"The United Kingdom, holding the presidency of both the EU and the G8, can make or break the forthcoming UN meeting in Montreal," said Toulmin in a statement.

"We are rooting for strong global leadership from Tony Blair ... to make the existing Kyoto agreement work and prepare the world for an even stronger global pact against climate change in the future."

The UN conference, which runs from Monday through December 9 in Montreal, is expected to draw more than 10,000 delegates to improve global efforts to control greenhouse gas emissions and fight global warming.

It will be the first UN climate change conference since the Kyoto Protocol came into effect in February 2005, which was ratified by more than 140 countries.

Writing in the Independent newspaper Saturday, Blair called for greater multilateral efforts to fight global warming, especially in developing "new technologies and cleaner energy".

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