Climate progress eludes ministers

Environment ministers struggled to nudge forward climate talks in Copenhagen yesterday, and police detained more than 250 protesters on a second day of mass action.

Church leaders handed a petition with half a million signatures to the UN and prayed for climate justice, while hundreds of demonstrators marched through the city centre for a second day to remind world leaders of the huge public pressure for a successful deal at the December 7-18 talks.

"We are telling them: Hey you, you who are sitting there making the decisions, the world is waiting for a real agreement," South African Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu told a crowd in the city centre. The day after a huge demonstration flared into violence and prompted the largest mass arrest in Danish history, police shut down a small march they said had not been authorised, detaining almost all who had joined it for disturbing the peace.

Police have released all but 13 of nearly 1,000 people detained after a march on Saturday, a police spokesman said.

The demonstration by tens of thousands of people was largely peaceful but violence erupted towards evening when demonstrators smashed windows and set fire to cars. Some of those detained said they were unfairly held and badly treated by police, and the waves of new arrests angered activists who said they were peacefully exercising their rights.

A Reuters witness saw no violence at the small anti-capitalist "hit production" march.

"They're just trying to stifle any kind of protest and they are mass arresting any demonstrators. Also today, there was nothing going on and suddenly police started arresting people," said protester Peter Boulo at yesterday's "hit production" march.