[Tom]

Climate scientists have predicted that 2009 is set to be one of the five warmest years on record.

The average global temperature for 2009 is expected to be more than 0.4C above the long term average, the Met Office and University of East Anglia researchers said.

The Met Office also predicted a rapid return to long-term warming for global temperatures and an increased probability of record temperatures after 2009.

Currently the warmest year on record is 1998, which saw average temperatures of 14.52C - well above the 1961 to 1990 long-term average of 14C.

Professor Phil Jones, director of the climate research unit at the University of East Anglia, said: "The fact that 2009, like 2008, will not break records does not mean that global warming has gone away.

"What matters is the underlying rate of warming - the period 2001-2007, with an average of 14.44C, was 0.21C warmer than corresponding values for the period 1991-2000."

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