Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are among 65 world leaders who so far have confirmed they will attend the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen next month

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will also go to the summit, Michael Helbo, a spokesman for Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, said today by phone. More leaders will confirm their attendance, Helbo said.

The UN will seek to reach an accord on greenhouse-gas emission reductions to extend or replace the expiring 1997 Kyoto Protocol. U.S. President Barack Obama isn’t among the leaders who confirmed they will attend, Helbo said. Leaders from Australia, Japan, Indonesia and Spain have said they will go. Brown said he was “extremely encouraged” by the turnout.

“On an issue of such far-reaching and global significance, it will require leaders to make the final decisions necessary to achieve agreement,” Brown wrote in a letter released by his office in London today that was sent Rasmussen. “I am extremely encouraged that so many heads of state and government have now publicly confirmed their intention to go.”

Global leaders are invited to the last two days of the event, which takes place on Dec. 7 to Dec. 18. There were 191 invitations sent to heads of state.

“I think we’re starting to see that the world’s state and government leaders know that it’s in Copenhagen, it has to happen and that they are ready to fly in,” Rasmussen said today in a speech in Odense, Denmark, which was broadcast by TV2.

To contact the reporters on this story: Christian Wienberg in Copenhagen at cwienberg@bloomberg.net; Craig Stirling in London at cstirling1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 22, 2009 10:04 EST