An authoritative international global warming conference, way past the deadline for finishing its report, lapsed into an unprecedented showdown between scientists and diplomats over authors' concerns that governments were watering down their warnings.

Last-minute negotiations over language continued behind closed doors Friday, less than one hour before a scheduled release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in Brussels.

A dispute between the scientific authors and the diplomatic editors of the report erupted over the sixth paragraph in the 21-page summary that sets out how much confidence the scientists have in their findings about the effects global warming is already having.

The sentence originally said scientists had "very high confidence" -- which means more than 90 percent chance of accuracy -- in the statement that many natural systems around the globe "are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases."

After days of intensive negotiations over this section, delegates from China and Saudi Arabia on Friday insisted that the confidence level be reduced to "high" -- which means more than 80 percent accuracy.

Three top scientific authors formally objected to the change by the diplomats, saying it was an unprecedented weakening of the scientific confidence that the issue was not raised when the report was circulated months ago.

For the full article: <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/04/05/climate.report.ap/index.html">Click Here</a>.

Delegates from China and Saudi Arabia. Disgusting. Self-serving. And Disgusting.

I see the UN is press releasing with phrases like 'possibly make the planet uninhabitable'.

They're not holding back. But it certainly makes you sit up and take notice.

Blacknad.

When the scientists that did the work and wrote the report ... are fighting back against politicians trying to water down their language ... anyone without a synaptic deficit ought to be able to figure out how to get from "A" to "B".