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.