Less than two months before the COP30 UN climate conference in Brazil, only 40 percent of nations have booked accommodation in the Amazon city of Belem, where prices have soared, organizers said Wednesday.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva championed the holding of the global conference in the world's largest rainforest but he has come under pressure about the hotel chaos in the poor northern city.

Organizers reported in a statement that only 79 of 198 countries have secured lodging, while 70 others were still in negotiations for places to sleep during the November meeting.

Some 50,000 people are expected in Belem, home to 1.4 million residents -- more than half of whom live in shantytowns.

With a shortage of traditional hotel rooms, conference organizers have scrambled to f

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