200 arrested during Copenhagen climate meeting

Protesters and police clashed for a second day at the world climate summit in Copenhagen as another 200 people at a rally Sunday were arrested outside a meeting of environment ministers.

The latest arrests came hours after police announced they had released nearly all but 13 of the 968 protesters detained Saturday in the Danish capital. Three of the 13 still in detention Sunday are scheduled to appear in court to face charges of fighting with police.

Police actions at the UN climate conference are being criticized. Environmental groups have complained that protesters were held overnight without water, access to washrooms or medical attention.

Activists were detained Saturday at the tail end of a 40,000-strong march toward the suburban conference centre where the 192-nation UN climate conference is being held.

The detainees were from a range of European countries as well as the U.S., Kenya, Belarus, Japan, Mongolia, China and Turkey, police said.

Police said some of the activists started breaking windows of buildings in downtown Copenhagen. A police officer received minor injuries when he was hit by a rock thrown from the group and one protester was injured by fireworks, Copenhagen police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch said.

The conference took a day off Sunday, though more than 40 environment ministers and other high-level negotiators were meeting for informal talks at the Danish Foreign Ministry on greenhouse emissions cuts and financing for poor nations to deal with climate change.

The pledges on emissions cuts so far are short of the minimum proposed in a draft agreement to keep temperatures from rising to a dangerous level.

Meanwhile, church bells in Denmark and other countries rang 350 times, a number that refers to what many scientists consider a safe level of carbon dioxide in the air.