"These are the two most vulnerable regions to climate change," said Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, at the launch of a project on Tuesday to help Arctic communities and mostly Pacific island states adapt to climate change.

She said evidence of a warming planet was stark and compelling and the cultures of the Arctic and island nations were at risk, adding that promoting adaptation was urgent.

"As we melt, the small developing island states sink," she told a news conference in Montreal, where about 190 nations are meeting to try to find ways to curb the emission of greenhouse gases released from burning fossil fuels.

Sea levels are already rising globally by about 0.08 inches a year (2 millimeters) and a UN climate report says seas are projected to rise between 3.5 inches (9 cm) and 35 inches (88 cm) between 1990 and 2100. But the report also predicts more intense storms and greater extremes of floods and drought.

SLOWLY GOING UNDER

In many Pacific island states, rising sea levels are causing chaos, said Taito Nakalevu of the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, an organization established by Pacific governments.

"Climate change has an impact on almost all aspects of our lives," he said. "Most of our rural communities are still very dependent on natural resources, such as fisheries, agriculture and forestry. But because of climate change, these resources are becoming scarce."

In the low-lying Pacific state of Tuvalu, a cluster of atolls no more than 16.5 feet (5 meters) above sea level, so-called king tides are becoming unusually powerful, swamping large areas, causing beach erosion, flooding of crops and homes.

In some areas, rising salinity has meant crops can no longer be grown, he said. King tides are often whipped up by cyclones.

The problem now was how to protect people's livelihoods and cultures. Some would be forced to move to other islands, while others would have to adapt, he said. If they can't, some cultures could be wiped out.

Rising seas have forced 100 people on one Pacific island to move to higher ground in what may be the first example of a village formally displaced because of modern global warming, a UN report said on Monday.

With coconut palms on the coast already standing in water, inhabitants in the Lateu settlement on Tegua island in Vanuatu started dismantling their wooden homes in August and moved about 600 yards (meters) inland.

Settlements in the Arctic are also under threat by the loss of protective sea ice barriers, allowing waves to batter once sheltered coasts and causing widespread erosion.

"The key message is that climate change is happening now and has been doing so for the past 30 years and doing so in the Arctic at a pace faster than anywhere else on the planet," said Bob Corell, senior fellow at the American Meteorological Society.

In 30 years, Alaska's annual mean temperature has increased by up to 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius), said Corell, who chaired a 2004 international Arctic climate change assessment report.