Don't be distracted from warming, prince says

Britain's Prince Charles said Tuesday the current financial crisis should not distract from the larger issue of global warming.

"The credit crunch is rightly a preoccupation of vast significance and importance. But we take our eye off the climate crunch at our peril," he said in a speech at a science museum in Tokyo.

The heir to the British throne is visiting the world's second-largest economy for the first time since 1970, and his arrival coincides with plunging global markets and recession fears. But he has made saving the environment the theme of his trip and spoke Tuesday after viewing exhibits related to global warming at Japan's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation.