AN ice sculpture which aims to focus world attention onto the plight of the polar bear had its launch at Castle Drogo, Drewsteignton.

Animal sculptor Mark Coreth will carve a hunting polar bear from a ten tonne block of ice, live on Nytorv Square in Copenhagen for the climate change talks. In ten days the public will be invited to touch the Ice Bear and their heat will help to melt it, revealing its bronze skeleton. On December 11 a second Ice Bear will be carved on Trafalgar Square.

At the launch last week, wildlife presenter and naturalist Nick Baker and arctic explorer Pen Hadow, both of whom live on Dartmoor, lent their support to the Ice Bear Project, which aims to bring a sense of urgency to the talks.

The project has attracted high profile international supporters, including multi-nationals Panasonic and Nokia, the WWF, Marks and Spencer and celebrities such as Stephen Fry.

Mr Fry, although unable to attend the launch, said: 'Polar bears and their habitat should be meltingly beautiful, not melting away.

'A forlorn bear on a shrinking iceberg may seem like an exaggeration of a complex problem but actually it stands as a symbol of how habitats are shrinking the world over and none more urgently so than the beautiful and fragile arctic. Do join me in supporting the Ice Bear Project and helping raise the temperature of the debate,' he said.