The draft report also predicts that other parts of the world especially China, Bangladesh and low Pacific Islands will be confronted by increased flood risks while other regions will face lower grain harvests.

2,500 climate change scientists sit on the panel which compiled the report.  The IPCC won the Nobel peace prize this year with the former US vice-president Al Gore.  It credits most of the rise in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century "very likely" to be the result of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Synthesis Report is the fourth from the IPCC this year and is intended to form the basis for negotiations on a new climate change treaty in Bali at year end.

Some scientists believe it is possible to halt global warming if the world's greenhouse gas emissions start to decline before 2015.  However the report estimates that emissions will increase by up to 90% by 2030.  The study foresees global average temperatures to rise by up to 5 degrees celsius if emissions continue to rise without action being taken until 2050.

This in turn would cause "significant extinctions" around the world, a decrease in cereal harvests everywhere and the flooding of about 30% of coastal wetlands.

Environmentalists say they fear that as scientists gather to agree to a summary of the report, the need for significant cuts in emissions will be ignored or played down.

Environmental group WWF says 'vital facts' have been cut from the summary as a result of the influence of government officials from countries opposed to taking radical action.  These facts include a warning of more destructive hurricanes, the warming of the upper Pacific Ocean and the loss of glaciers in the Alps.

Hans Verolme, the director of WWF's climate change programme, said, "There is a contrast between the immense wealth of IPCC's work and the politically-inspired trimming back in the Summaries for Policymakers."

The report will also leave out evidence published in the past year that the Southern Ocean has started to take up less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.  This is seen to accelerate the pace of global warming. 

Predictions that there could be other "positive feedbacks," such as the Amazon forest dying back and releasing carbon into the atmosphere could also be left out.

Keith Allott, of WWF UK, said, "The public is encouraged to think by climate sceptics in the media that the IPCC is a highly political body determined to assert an alarming view of climate change. The reality is the opposite."  THE END.