Commonwealth small island states call for climate action

* Small island states accuse China, U.S. of blocking talks

* Call for urgent action on deeper cuts, climate cash

By Michael Perry

PERTH, Australia, Oct 25 (Reuters) - African, Caribbean and South Pacific states on Tuesday said big greenhouse gas emitters China and the United States were dragging their feet on tackling climate change and urged a Commonwealth leaders summit this week to call for urgent action at global climate talks in November.

"The scientific evidence available to us says we ought to act now," said Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Malielegaoi after a meeting of 48 small island and developing nations in Perth.

"This is the message that we want to tell the whole world, that we are all one," he told a news conference ahead of the Commonwealth summit starting Friday.

Global warming is set to be a focus for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), ahead of a major U.N. climate change conference in South Africa from Nov. 28.

Many Commonwealth members are developing nations that are vulnerable to a predicted increase in more extreme droughts, floods, rising sea levels and spread of infectious diseases.

Low-lying Tuvalu in the South Pacific, the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and several Caribbean island states fear rising sea levels could wipe them off the map.