BEIJING, Jan. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- British climate scientists predict that 2007 might be the world's hottest year on record because of a resurgent E1 Nino climate trend combined with higher levels of greenhouse gases.

    "Even a moderate (El Nino) warming event is enough to push the global temperatures over the top," said Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research unit at the University of East Anglia Thursday.

    The London official weather office forecast warned planetary warming from pollution will "push global temperatures over the top."

    The global temperature is predicted to be 0.54 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average of 14 degrees Celsius, the office said in a statement.

    It added that there was a 60 percent probability that 2007 would be as warm or even warmer than the current warmest year on record, 1998.

    El Nino is an occasional seasonal warming of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean that upsets normal weather patterns from the western seaboard of Latin America to East Africa, and potentially has a global impact on climate.

    It has been blamed for widespread bushfires and drought in Australia, floods in Latin, stronger typhoons in Asia and other severe weather conditions elsewhere in the world in recent months.

    El Nino also can do some good. It tends to take the punch out of the Atlantic hurricane season by generating crosswinds that can rip the storms apart -- good news for Florida's orange growers -- for example.

    (Agencies)