GLOBAL WARMING could devastate European ski resorts within decades, forcing lower-altitude resorts to close and threatening winter sports which now attract up to 80 million tourists a year.

A report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Wednesday heaped more bad news on Europe's alpine ski resorts, already struggling against the warmest weather in 1,300 years, according to Austrian climatologists, with flowers still blooming on some slopes and world ski tournaments being cancelled through lack of snow.

The OECD report, the first systematic study of the slopes in Europe's Alpine region, warned that climate change posed a "serious risk" to the resorts and that recent warming in the region was roughly three times the global average.

Germany was most at risk, with the low-lying ski areas in Bavaria threatened. Austria, where winter tourism accounts for 4.5 per cent of the national economy, followed close behind. Also affected were France, where the ski industry had a turnover of 20 billion euros last year, and Italy. The report found that 1994, 2000, 2002 and 2003 were the warmest years on record in the Alps over the past 500 years.

Predictions showed "even greater changes in the coming decades, with less snow at low altitudes and receding glaciers and melting permafrost higher up."

A two-degree rise in temperature would reduce the number of viable slopes from 666 to 400, a change that could occur by 2050, the study found. The report came as next week's World Cup skiing slalom race for women in the French resort of Megeve was cancelled because of the lack of snow.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006