Peru has created its first environment ministry, on the eve of a joint Latin American and European Union summit expected to focus on climate change.

Peruvian President Alan Garcia said the new ministry would help protect the nation's Amazon rainforest

A scientific study has said that Peru - which is hosting this week's summit - is one of the three nations that will be most affected by global warming

Peru's Andes mountains are the home of more than half the world's tropical glaciers, but it is estimated that in 25 years time they will be gone

The glaciers supply rivers which provide water for farms and people on the arid Pacific coast, where almost three-quarters of Peru's population live

On the other side of the Andes lies the biggest stretch of the Amazon rainforest after Brazil's, an area

with the creation of the environment ministry - will be preserved for its important role in combating climate change

urged world leaders to create a global reforestation fund financed by a fossil fuels tax