The president of the Maldives and his 12 cabinet ministers have been holding a government meeting five metres underwater to highlight the threat of global warming.

Mohamed Nasheed signed a document calling for global cuts in carbon emissions ahead of a landmark UN climate change meeting in Copenhagen in December.

Seated around an underwater table at the bottom of a lagoon, the cabinet endorsed an SOS message from the Maldives which will be presented to world leaders at the climate change summit.

The archipeligo nation off the tip of India – renowned for its luxury tropical hideaways – is threatened by rising sea levels.

Most of the Maldives’ low-lying islands will be completely submereged by the end of the century if sea levels continue to rise at the present rate.

The underwater meeting is just one of 350 global campaigns calling for a reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide to a safe threshold.