Mohamed Nasheed has repeatedly argued that the 330,000 people living on hundreds of tiny islands could soon become environmental refugees, driven from their homes by the effects of climate change.

He said the Copenhagen summit must "ensure that most immediate and urgent adaptation needs of the most vulnerable countries are adequately funded".

"From the frontline, we are telling others countries that what happens to the Maldives today, happens to you tomorrow," he said.

In 2007, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that an increase in sea levels of just 18 to 59 centimetres (seven to 24 inches) would make the Maldives virtually uninhabitable by 2100.

More than 80 percent of the Maldives, famed as a tourist paradise for of its secluded beaches and coral reefs, is less than a metre (about three feet) above sea level.

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