UN agency pressures Ban on climate crisis summit

"I know the Kenyan government has proposed to have such a summit. I'm going to discuss that with the president (Kenya's Mwai Kibaki)," he told reporters during a brief visit to a Nairobi slum.

"Climate change is one of the most important issues that the international community must address before 2012. I will work very closely with members of the United Nations to discuss this," he added.

Ban discussed the summit plans in Nairobi with Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP). Earlier this month Ban also met Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Secretariat.