The calls came as representatives of more than 110 nations, including some 40 island states, meet this week to review a languishing 1994 action plan to help the world's smallest countries deal with challenges such as climate change, trade losses and natural disasters.

But negotiations on a final statement on climate change ran into problems, UN spokesman Marie Heuze said, adding that the talks "were not easy."

Tuvalu, a low-lying atoll in the Pacific, said it had locked horns with the United States and other large countries over calls to curtail greenhouse gas emissions, which many believe are the cause of man-made global warming.

"Clearly we have difficulties with some countries not willing to admit that climate change is happening now," said Ian Fry, international environmental adviser for Tuvalu, which has a population of 11,500.

"Principally the United States is in a state of denial," he told AFP, noting that Tuvalu was well aware of the problem.

Last Feburary, Tuvalu was hit by "king tides" with peaks approaching three meters (yards), washing over the nation whose highest point is only four meters above sea level.

The United States has refused to accept the 1997 Kyoto Protocol aimed at fighting global warming, arguing it is biased in favor of fast-growing developing countries which are not covered by its targeted emissions cuts.

The treaty, which expires in 2012, will come into effect next month but some experts believe it may prove ineffective unless major polluters like China, the United States and India, are brought on board.

"We must be one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change," Fry said.

Tuvalu hopes to get funding for projects to build resiliance to climate change, including planting mangroves and looking at engineering structures to stave off disaster.

The Maldives, the Indian Ocean island state that was hard hit by last month's tsunami, said it was looking for a strong statement from the conference acknowledging that climate change threatens the existence of some its islands.

"There is a scenario that in 2100, the capital of the Maldives will not be there," said Mohamed Inaz of the country's environment ministry.

"We wish that the major countries understand the situation and we would like to see the major countries that haven't signed the Kyoto protocol to sign it," the Maldives' UN ambassador Mohamed Latheef told AFP.

John Turner, the US assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs, said the United States understood the concerns of island nations but would stick with its position.

"We realise the vulnerability of low-level island states to the potential impact of climate change and of course they are seriously vulnerable to extreme weather events," he told AFP.

Turner said Washington would stick to the commitments made at a UN conference on climate change in Buenos Aires last month and argued that the Mauritius meeting was not the forum to "renegotiate" issues of global warming.

"We have an international forum in Buenos Aires and that is the format for new negotiations on climate," Turner said.

While disagreements remained on climate change, conference delegates did approve a draft statement calling for island-nations' "vulnerabilities" to be recognized in new global trade policies being drafted at the World Trade Organisation.

"We see trade as being extremely vital, only second to climate change," said Byron Blake, who heads trade negotiations for the 15-member Caribbean community (CARICOM).

In the Caribbean, the loss of trade preferences in the banana and sugar sector has put many exporting nations, including Dominica, St. Lucia and Grenada, in the red.

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