2007 confirms Aussie warming trend, climatologist says

The Australian Bureau of Metereology says that 2007 was Australia's sixth warmest year on record, with the average annual temperature of 21.8 degrees Celsius some 0.67 degrees above normal, AFP reports.

Southern states were most affected as was the key agricultural zone, the Murray Darling Basin. These areas experienced their hottest year since records began in 1910, the Bureau says.

Neil Plummer from the National Climate Centre told AFP that "we are already seeing a change of climate" with 16 of the past 18 years warmer than average.

"There's a fair weight of evidence now that what we've seen in terms of temperature changes, most of it is due to greenhouse gas emissions," Plummer said.

But he also added that it is still too early to confirm whether man-made global warming was responsible for the rising temperatures and drier conditions.