2007 among top 7 warmest years: WMO

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - This year will be among the seven warmest on record, with extreme events including a precipitous thaw of Arctic sea ice, U.N. data showed on Thursday on the sidelines of a U.N. climate conference.

The study also said that 1998-2007 was the hottest decade since reliable records began around 1850, in further evidence of what the U.N. Climate Panel calls "unequivocal" warming in recent decades.

"What we see is confirmation of this warming trend," Michel Jarraud, head of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said during U.N. climate talks where 190 nations are deadlocked over how to step up action to slow climate change.

"This year was in the top seven," he said. The WMO says 1998 was the warmest year followed by 2005, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2006.

Jarraud said it was not yet possible to rank 2007 exactly. The data are based on two sources -- the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says 2007 is fifth warmest while data from England's University of East Anglia places it seventh.

Among extremes, Jarraud noted that the Arctic ice shrank at the end of the northern summer to the smallest since satellite records began in the 1970s, opening the fabled Northwest Passage for a first time and eclipsing a 2005 low by 23 percent.

Signs of extreme weather this year include a cyclone in Bangladesh that killed 3,000 people in November, droughts in Australia and China, and floods in Bolivia. England had its wettest summer since records began in 1766.

DISASTERS