Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels will have one of his last hurrahs next week in his role as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

He'll host more than 60 fellow mayors for a leadership meeting at the downtown Westin Hotel Oct. 1-3. The meeting is not open to the public.

Nickels became president of the mayors' group in June, but he'll have to relinquish the position once he leaves office in January. (Burnsville, Minnesota Mayor Elizabeth Kautz will then take over as head of the mayors' group.)

As part of next week's meeting, Nickels plans to announce that 1,000 mayors have now signed a pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. cities in line with the Kyoto Protocol, according to a news release.

That's an initiative started by Nickels which won him national media attention, but didn't prevent Seattle voters from booting him in the August primary. If anything, Nickels national profile may have worked against him -- challenger Joe Mallahan liked to deride Nickels' role as "king of the mayors."

The event also will bring back some Seattle luminaries who have left for jobs in the Obama administration. Among those scheduled to speak are former King County Executive Ron Sims, now deputy secretary of HUD, and former Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, now U.S. Drug Czar.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan also are scheduled to address the mayors' group.

Among the 60-plus mayors who plan to show up: Oklahoma City's Mick Cornett, Los Angeles' Antonio Villaraigosa, Sacramento's Kevin Johnson, New Orleans' Ray Nagin, Denver's John Hickenlooper, Philadelphia's Michael Nutter, and Thomas Leppert of Dallas.