Sixty-five world leaders so far have said they will attend the Copenhagen climate summit in December and several more have responded positively to invitations, a Danish official said Sunday.
Those coming include leaders from Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not an official spokesman.
Denmark last week sent out formal invitations to world leaders in 191 countries to attend the Dec. 7-18 U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen.
The conference had originally been intended to produce a new global climate-change treaty on limiting emissions of greenhouse gases that would replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. However, hopes for a legally binding agreement have dimmed lately, with leaders saying the summit is more likely to produce a template for future action to cut emissions blamed for global warming.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is among those heading to Copenhagen, said Sunday in a letter to Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen that the meeting needs national leaders "to make the final decisions necessary to achieve agreement."
"I am extremely encouraged that so many heads of state and government have now publicly confirmed their intention to go. This is an important signal and I shall continue to encourage others to do so," Brown wrote.
Britain has pushed other nations hard in recent months to commit to a legally binding treaty at the summit, although Brown has acknowledged that a pact may not be sealed until 2010.
"The Copenhagen agreement must allow for immediate implementation of its provisions, while also including a clear commitment to convert the agreement into an internationally legally binding treaty as soon as possible," he wrote to Rasmussen.
Brown will hold talks with Commonwealth leaders at a summit in Trinidad and Tobago next weekend. Rasmussen also plans to attend the talks.
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