Climate activists phone blitz Prime Minister

LONDON (Reuters) - About 300 environmentalists converged on parliament on Monday and chanted "tick! tick! tick! tick!" to symbolise a wake-up call to world leaders ahead of December's U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen.

The meeting in the Danish capital will try to agree a framework for a deal on tackling global warming to replace the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.

Talks have stalled because of disputes over how to share the job of cutting emissions and how much richer countries should contribute to help poorer ones.

At 12:18 p.m. the crowd gathered on the green opposite the Houses of Parliament and on a prearranged cue held up their mobile phones and started calling the government.

One, activist Iris Andrews, said she had got through to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

She said Brown had told her he "understood her fears about climate change," and that he would be going to Copenhagen.

"They're starting to listen, now we need them to act," she said.

Downing Street confirmed the prime minister had spoken to Andrews for about three minutes.

"He reiterated the remarks he made in Newsweek," a Downing Street official said, referring to an article Brown wrote in the current affairs magazine.

"If it is necessary to clinch the deal, I will personally go to Copenhagen to achieve it -- and I will be urging my fellow leaders to do so too," Brown wrote.

Dan Gurney, a 23-year-old student from London, attending Monday's event said action on climate change was needed now.

"Time is running out," he said.

"There is so much talking, but while they (politicians) talk, the planet continues to suffer."

Campaigner, Martha Grange, said that while climate was clearly an issue many governments were taking seriously it would be dangerous to become complacent.

"We must keep the pressure up," she said.

(Reporting by Matthew Jones)