Under a banner reading "millions at risk," pairs of ecologically protesters were planning to board the vessel to symbolize impending disaster facing mankind if the Kyoto Protocol if more environmentally sound policies are not adopted by the world's industrialized nations.

The action was timed to coincide with the opening here of a United Nations-sponsored conference on climate change.

"Global warming is here and is having the greatest impact on the poorest countries, where people are most vulnerable," said Juan Carlos Villalonga, of Greenpeace Argentina, which sponsored the protest.

Delegates from 150 countries, along with 6,000 officials from government, industry and non-profit groups, were in Buenos Aires for the UN climate change conference, which runs through December 17.

UN negotiations on climate change have been invigorated by the prospect of the Kyoto Protocol officially taking effect early next year.

The Kyoto accords, the world's most ambitious and complex environmental treaty, legally commits industrialized countries to trimming output of six "greenhouse" gases, especially carbon dioxide (CO2), by at least 5.2 percent by 2012, compared with 1990 levels.

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