UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Prime Minister of Samoa Tuilaepa Malielegaoi on Friday called for urgent action to tackle climate change, saying it poses the single greatest threat especially to small island states like his.

"Put simply, climate change poses the single greatest threat especially to small island developing states like Samoa, not through our doing or choice, and that the need to take effective action to mitigate against climate change impacts is urgent and real," he told the UN General Assembly.

Climate change is a societal problem requiring a decisive global response, said Malielegaoi. "Its global reach and impact should unite and strengthen our resolve, not weaken and divide us."

United, the international community can do a great deal to arrest and even reverse the threat of climate change, he said.

"Its impacts are worsening by the day. No one country, or single group of nations, and no single organization can solely win the war against climate change. The divergent, yet inextricably linked interests of member states demand that we work together," the prime minister said.