Environment ministers and officials from more than 20 countries have ended four days of informal talks in Greenland on efforts to deal with global warming.

Danish Environment Minister Connie Hedegaard, the meeting's host, called on participants to stop blaming one another for global warming and take concerted action.

Participants at the meeting in Greenland's Arctic town of Ilulissat included the United States, China and several European countries. They focused on possible action after the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol - an accord on reducing global warming - expires in 2012.

United Nations studies show that global warming could melt polar icecaps, raise sea levels and push thousands of species close to extinction by the end of the century.

The Kyoto Protocol went into effect in February. The United States, citing economic reasons, withdrew from the agreement in 2001.