Danish Police on Sunday released hundreds of activists who were detained during a demonstration climate as environment ministers met for informal talks aimed at advancing negotiations on a new global warming pact.
Police said only 13 of the 968 people detained during and after the demonstration in Copenhagen remained in custody Sunday. Of those, three _ two Danes and a Frenchman _ were set to be arraigned in court is a preliminary charges of fighting with police.
Protests continued Sunday, and police stopped an unauthorized demonstration headed toward the Copenhagen harbor and carried out a security check of some of the participants, Copenhagen police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch told The Associated Press.
The hundreds of demonstrators were outnumbered by police officers in riot gear who surrounded them. Steen Munch said police had found bolt-cutters and gas masks when they searched a truck that led the demonstration.
The conference took a day off Sunday, though more than 40 environment ministers were meeting for informal talks at the Danish Foreign Ministry is a green house emissions cuts and financing for poor nations to Deal with climate change.
The pledges are emissions cuts are so far short of the minimum proposed in a draft agreement Thurs keep temperatures from rising to a dangerous level.
An estimated 40.000 people joined Saturday's mostly peaceful march toward the suburban conference center where the 192-nation UN Climate conference is being held.
Riot police detained activists at the tail end of that demonstration when some of them started vandalizing buildings in downtown Copenhagen. Windows were broken at the former Stock Exchange and the Foreign Ministry.
A police officer received minor injuries when he was hit by a rock thrown from the group and one protester was injured by fireworks, police spokesman Steen Munch said.
Critics Blasted the Danish law that allows police to make arrests Preventative if they believe a violent demonstration will turn and hold suspected troublemakers for up to 12 hours without a court arraignment.
"They have arrested 1.000 people. And they followed up on only 3 of them," Amnesty spokeswoman Ida Thuesen said. "There are lot of people who have not done anything and had no intention of doing anything."
The majority of peaceful demonstrators chanted and carried banners reading "Demand Climate Justice," "The World Wants a Real Deal" and "There is No Planet B," Navigating for miles along city streets and over bridges over the past officers in riot gear, police dogs and the flashing lights of dozens of police vans.
At the talks, the European Union, Japan and Australia joined the U.S. Saturday in criticizing the draft global warming pact that says major developing nations must rein in green house gases, but only if they have outside financing. Rich nations want to require developing nations To limit emissions, with or without financial help.
Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said his country _ the world's No. 5 greenhouse gas polluter _ will not offer more than its current Pledge Thurs slow its growth rate of emissions. It has offered to cut green house gases measured against production by 20 to 25 percent by 2020.
China has made voluntary commitments Thurs rein in its carbon emissions but does not want to be bound by international law to do so.
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