"Unless we change course, most scientists believe the seas will rise so high that they will swallow whole islands and coastal areas," Clinton said in a speech at Christchurch's Antartic Centre.

"Storms like hurricanes, and droughts, will intensify. Diseases like malaria will be borne by mosquitos to higher and higher altitude and across borders, threatening more lives -- a phenomena we already see today in Africa."

Clinton said economic development, contrary to a too common belief, did not have to lead to ever-greater energy consumption.

Instead conservation technology could act as a spur to growth as well as protecting the environment, he said.

"We have somehow to convince a critical mass of decision makers and ordinary citizens in every nation of the world that that is true," he said.

"It will help to concentrate their attention if the people who know about Antarctica can illustrate year in and year out in graphic terms the consequences of ignoring climate change and global warming."

In illustration of his comments, Clinton announced the US would release previously classified spy satellite photographs of Antartica in a move designed to help scientists better understand an eco-system under threat from the effects of global warming.

Vice-president Al Gore last month declassified 59 satellite photographs of the Arctic to help scientists studying the relationship between the polar icecaps.

To these will be added seven digital photos of the Dry Valleys region of Antarctica -- an area of some 7,500 square miles (19,500 square kilometres) of "cold polar-desert," -- taken in 1975 and 1980.

Dr. Scott Borg, a US scientist involved in studying Antartica, said the released images would provide "a valuable benchmark for studies of changes in the region."

Also present at Wednesday's ceremony were New Zealand Premier Jenny Shipley and Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mount Everest.

Clinton announced at the start of his speech that he would have to cut short his visit to New Zealand because of the threat posed by Hurricane Floyd to Florida and Georgia.

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