LEADING insurance companies, suffering growing losses from natural disasters, On Tuesday called on governments to move first to cut emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

The insurers plea, made at a UN conference on the 1992 Climate Change Convention, put them in opposition to a large section of the US and worldwide energy industry which is fighting to head off any limits on the use of fossil fuels.

"We are insisting that these negotiations must achieve early and substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions," Mr Andrew Dlugolecki of the British-based General Accident said.