PARIS (AFP) -- The lights went out at major tourist attractions across western Europe for five minutes on Thursday night, including the Eiffel Tower and Rome's Colosseum, to raise awareness about climate change. The normally glittering night-time view of France's most famous attraction was plunged into darkness if only for a few minutes as part of a campaign dubbed "five minutes' break for the planet."

The event, which saw millions of homes across the continent turn off the lights, was organized by environmental groups to raise awareness of rampant fossil fuel consumption which contributes to global warming.

It came as the UN's top scientific panel for global warming met in Paris to hammer out a consensus report on climate change.

Sources said their report would show a "best estimate" that the earth's surface temperature will probably rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 C (3.24 and 7.24 F) by the turn of the century.

The consensus estimate will feature in a major update about global warming due to be unveiled in Paris on Friday by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change after a four-day debate.

A spokesman for the Friends of the Earth conservation group which helped organize the lights-out event in Europe, described the campaign as a "success".

"Now we have to get some concrete measures from our politicians," she said.

A spokeswoman for Belgian electricity distributor Elia said that the effects of the five-minute gesture were easily seen on the national grid at the end of the action at 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) when there was a 350 megawatt surge in demand, or the equivalent of 350,000 households.

Some offices and government buildings also switched off the lights, including Brussels town hall.