G-8 summit begins with rival proposals from Bush, Blair

The Hindu , Thursday, July 07, 2005
Correspondent : Staff Reporter
Gleneagles, Scotland, July 7. (AP): World leaders weighed a huge aid package for Africa and new plans for tackling global warming as Iraq war allies President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair found themselves advocating rival positions.

Blair, buoyed by the decision to award London the 2012 Olympics, pledged Wednesday to keep pushing for more aid to combat poverty in Africa and global warming, the two issues he has made the focus of this year's meeting but both goals that are more ambitious than those embraced by Bush.

Police battled thousands of protesters on the outskirts of town as the leaders of the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia gathered for their annual economic summit.

Early Thursday, police threw up a security cordon around a campground housing about 5,000 of the protesters in an apparent attempt to keep them inside and prevent more violence.

Leaders brought a variety of proposals and, this year, shared center stage with Irish rock star Bono, the lead singer of U2, who heavily lobbied some of the world's richest nations to do more for Africa.

Blair, the meeting's host and first to arrive at the heavily fortified golf resort, said he was ``prepared to hold out for what is right'' on his agenda.

Blair met with Bush for about 20 minutes informally on Wednesday. He was having breakfast with him Thursday.

Sherpas, or diplomats, would work through the night to work out agreements on deals but progress was being made on climate change, said Ian Gleeson, a Downing Street spokesman.

``We're moving in the right direction,'' Gleeson said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking the group's support for a wider role for the United Nations in Iraq and may propose a possible exit timetable for the United States, the Kremlin said.

Bush, unpopular in Europe, defended his handling of Iraq and the treatment of prisoners at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. He sought less aid for Africa than Blair wanted, and leveled renewed criticism at the Kyoto treaty on global warming.

In a brief visit to Denmark before flying to Scotland, Bush acknowledged his unpopularity in other European Union countries.

``I understand that people aren't going to agree with decisions I make. But my job is to make decisions that I think are right, and to lead,'' Bush said at a joint news conference with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Bush also said he recognized that human activity had contributed to climate change _ a concession from an earlier position that the jury was still out on such a connection.

But he stood by his rejection of the Kyoto treaty on global warming, calling instead for more cooperation on cleaner fuels.

``Kyoto didn't work for the United States and it frankly didn't work for the world. The reason it didn't work for the world was that developing nations weren't included,'' Bush said. The United States is the only G-8 member not to ratify the agreement, which took effect in February.

Faryar Shirzad, a top Bush foreign policy aide, told reporters aboard Air Force One that final touches were being made on a summit statement for release later in the week that would unanimously emphasize ``common ground'' on climate control _ without detailing remaining differences.

He said an effort was under way to produce such consensus-building statements on a variety of topics.

 
SOURCE : The Hindu, Thursday, July 07, 2005
 


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