Police also beefed up security at Denmark's land and sea borders to prevent troublemakers from entering the country amid fears Saturday's march through the Danish capital could be joined by violent far-left groups.

On Friday they arrested 75 Danish and international sympathisers of the "Our Climate - Not Your Business" movement which held demonstrations around the city under the banner "Don't buy the lie."

The protests, which police said involved around 500 people, were the first at the December 7-18 talks.

Helicopters buzzed in the skies above while armoured police vans and canine squads patrolled the streets.

"It looks like a military zone, the police are everywhere," said Gerardo Gambirazio, an American geography researcher who took a break from the climate negotiations to check out the goings-on in the city.

Around 20 of those arrested were released by the evening while six were charged mainly with vandalism or attempted vandalism and were expected to appear in court, police said.

"At least 55 people questioned as a preventative measure were of foreign origin," police spokesman Rasmus Bernt Skovgaard told AFP.

"Our Climate - Not Your Business" argues that industry is turning the climate crisis into a business opportunity.

"We want to say No to criminal businesses which are responsible for the change of the climate and are now pretending to save it, guided by their own mercenary interests," said a protester who would only give his name as Thomas.

Saturday's demonstration is expected to gather between 50,000 and 80,000 people depending on various estimates from police and organisers.

The six-kilometre (four-mile) march, organised by 515 organisations from 67 countries, will depart from the Christiansborg Castle where parliament sits, crossing the city centre to end up at the Bella Centre where the climate conference is being held.

Violent far-left groups have already threatened via Internet sites to join the protests against the climate negotiations, which they say do not address the concerns of the poor countries most threatened by global warming.

Police have warned potential agitators that they will respond "firmly" to acts of violence.

"Our hope and goal is that this big demonstration will be a peaceful party, festive and without mayhem," Copenhagen police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch told AFP.

"But we know from experience that some destructive elements will infiltrate the demonstration."

Buses and trains packed with protesters are expected to arrive from other European cities, including Berlin, Kiel, Bremen, London, Amsterdam and Milan.

"A number of Swedes have already been turned back at the border because they had a history of vandalism in Sweden. They also had paint bombs in their luggage," Munch said.

"We've also stopped some buses in order to check passengers' identities and their luggage," he added.

Civil society climate groups 350.org, TckTckTck and AVAAZ were meanwhile jointly organising more than 3,000 candlelight vigils around the world on Friday and Saturday, said 350.org founder Bill McKibben.

They were supporting a demand by the Association of Small Island Nations that the world commit to preventing global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), he said.

"These are tiny nations, but they have an army behind them, an army of civil society the world over who understand that these are the only people at this conference talking about scientific reality," McKibben said.

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