Joining forces at a conference in London, Bangladesh and Britain called on nations to thrash out a new global warming agreement in Copenhagen next year to try to slow the devastating effects of climate change.

Britain's International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander warned that time was running out for millions of people in impoverished Bangladesh unless urgent action is taken to cut harmful emissions.

"Climate change is today's crisis, not tomorrow's risk, and is already affecting millions of people in Bangladesh," Alexander said, while praising the country's "innovative approach" to adapting to the changing climate.

"But adaptation on the ground is not enough. We believe more must be done at a global level," he said.

"This is why today the UK and Bangladesh are announcing a new partnership calling for a comprehensive deal in Copenhagen, leading to the stabilisation of greenhouse gases at a level that avoids dangerous climate change -- and benefits some of the world's poorest people."

Flooding is a regular occurrence in Bangladesh with at least 20 percent of the delta country inundated each year. As the conference took place, at least 600,000 people had been stranded by floods.

Some experts say Bangladesh is experiencing more rainfall, flooding and cyclones as a result of global warming.

A. B. Mirza Azizul Islam, honorary finance advisor of the Bangladesh government, told the conference: "The incidence of floods and cyclones has increased perceptibly as a result of climate change. Serious floods are now visiting us frequently."

He said the human cost was on a massive scale.

"Climate change in Bangladesh is tens of thousands of people uprooted from their homes, it's innumerable children prevented from going to school and hundreds of thousands of tonnes of foodstuffs lost."

Last year widespread flooding and a devastating cyclone caused crop and infrastructure damage worth 2.8 billion dollars, or around four percent of Bangladesh's gross domestic product, according to a World Bank study.

Mirza told journalists that six billion dollars was needed over the next 15 years to build dams, cyclone shelters, plant trees in coastal areas and develop infrastructure to defend people against natural disasters.

Alexander said the new aid pledge would help Bangladesh protect houses and schools against flooding, and introduce new crop strains.

Oxfam welcomed the announcement, but said it regretted that the money pledged was not in addition to Britain's existing aid pledges.

The charity's Bangladesh programme officer, Elora Ferdous, said: "Bangladesh is not alone in feeling the impacts of climate change, nor in needing to develop, so it is disappointing that this money is not on top of the UK's existing aid commitments."

The Nobel Prize-winning United Nations Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts rising sea levels will devour 17 percent of Bangladesh's total land mass by 2050, leaving at least 20 million people homeless.

Bangladesh insists that rich nations must pay the billions of dollars it says it needs to help fight the effects of climate change because they are the biggest polluters.

Danish development minister Ulla Toernaes said her country had a huge responsibility when it hosts the Copenhagen meeting next year, aimed at agreeing a new global pact on cutting emissions to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

"Developed countries have an obligation to take action," she said.

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