Fiji urged the United States Friday to "save" the world from climate change as it had helped to win World War II.

"We in the Pacific, in common with the whole world, look to America for its leadership and for its engagement and assistance on climate change," Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama told a UN conference in Marrakesh overshadowed by president-elect Donald Trump's threats to withdraw the US from a climate rescue pact. 

"Just as we looked at America during the dark days of World War II... I say to the American people 'you came to save us then, it is time for you to help to save us now'," he said.

Bainimarama invited Trump to Fiji "to see the effects of climate change for himself and to meet Pacific island leaders face to face in Fiji to discuss the crisis we are all facing along with other low-lying areas of the world, including parts of America."

The United States had a responsibility, he argued, to contribute to the global response to climate change.

The first gathering of the UN's climate forum since last year's adoption of the Paris Agreement to curtail global warming, is tasked with drafting a roadmap for its execution.

It has been overshadowed by uncertainty about Trump's vow to "cancel" the pact to rein in greenhouse gas emissions blamed for planet warming.