Oil giants BP and Shell have joined a Friends of the Earth email campaign pleading with President George W Bush not to renege on the Kyoto Protocol climate-change treaty.

The campaign is believed to have stalled the White House internet server, which can only handle 150 messages a minute.

So far, 33,000 emails have been sent to the White House as part of FoE's bid to make the US stick by its commitment to prevent global warming.

At present, 1,000 emails an hour are being sent to President Bush.

The email is being dispersed across the globe as recipients pass it on to friends and colleagues.

An FoE Europe spokesman said more than 200 members of the European Parliament and 140 European Commission members have sent the email, as well as BP and Shell employees using their work computers.

FoE will tomorrow send out emails to some of the 10m people that signed an email petition in the run-up to the climate change summit in the Hague.

Spanish, French, Russian and Japanese versions of the emails are being sent out this week.

The organisation says the "Flood Bush" campaign may be even bigger than the Hague campaign.

Useful link
Friends of the Earth website