An iceberg in Paris

Anyone in the French capital on Tuesday might have done something of a double take as they passed along the river Seine.

Because not far away from the city's world-famous landmark, the Eiffel Tower, they would have seen an iceberg.

It was, of course, not a natural phenomenon, but a 16-metre one constructed by the environmental organisation Greenpeace, and was meant to serve as a timely reminder to the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and other world leaders that global warming and climate are issues that need to be tackled.

Timely as well as symbolic, because it came as Sarkozy, along with United States president, Barack Obama, Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, and leaders of Britain, Canada, Germany Italy and Japan along with European Union representatives were preparing to meet in L'Aquilia, Italy for the G8 summit which opens on Wednesday.

At the base of the structure, Greenpeace had also placed placards reading "Sarkozy : climate leadership now!" and "G8 : climate leadership now!", once again a call for leaders to show action to back up their promises as far as the environmental organisation was concerned.

And the director of Greenpeace, France, Pascal Husting, had few words of praise for the "efforts" of the French president, who has made environmental issues a centrepiece of his domestic political agenda.

"Nicolas Sarkozy has made a number of speeches and claims to be the champion in the battle against global warming," he said in a statement.

"But he has so far failed to show the political will to really do anything about it."

Husting also insisted that Europe could "and should" take the lead in the battle against global warming "in light of the current inability of the Barack Obama, to fulfil that role."

Climate change will be one of the issues topping the agenda during the G8 summit, and many environmental experts expect leaders to make their strongest statement yet on global warming with an agreement that global greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by 50 per cent by 2050.

Once again heavy on the symbolism perhaps, the Greenpeace iceberg is due to be taken down on Wednesday, the day the G8 opens.