G-8 Leaders Brace For Debate, Criticism

Bracing for what is likely to be a contentious round of talks aimed at combating climate change, and for a chiding from aid groups over previous pledges to relieve African poverty, leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations were headed to Germany for their annual summit starting Wednesday.

The meeting, in this picturesque vacation town on the Baltic coast, already has been the subject of violent protests: Weekend rioting in nearby Rostock was called Germany's worst in decades as anti-globalization protesters hurled rocks and bottles at police.

Chief among the summit topics is climate change — and the leaders will have to overcome major differences, particularly between the United States and European Union.

President Bush was an early arrival, with Air Force One landing in a cloud of spray on a wet runway in Rostock. Several hundred protesters demonstrated nearby, some carrying red banners with the communist hammer and sickle, others with banners reading "G-8: Warmongers."

Mr. Bush was to meet Wednesday — before the summit begins — with Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has insisted she would like to reach agreement with the other seven G-8 leaders on having the United Nations oversee the establishment of a future pact on curbing global warming.

In Berlin, Bush advisers told reporters the U.S. president is eager to find some common ground with Merkel on climate change.

Despite differences between the U.S. and German proposals, there "is more agreement than disagreement," Jim Connaughton and Dave McCormick said.

McCormick said Mr. Bush spoke with Merkel last week and told her he agreed that any follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol must be handled within a U.N. framework, a key Merkel demand.

Merkel also plans to meet other leaders individually before the summit's official opening Wednesday evening, and began with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a Japan-EU summit in Berlin on Tuesday.

"We agree that we need a reduction target under which we say that we want to halve, or even more than halve, CO2 emissions by the middle of the century," Merkel said after the meeting.

Abe noted that "we naturally cannot neglect energy stability and economic growth in solving climate change." As for the hoped-for 50 percent reduction in emissions by 2050, he said that should be measured "from the current point in time."

Talks with Italian Premier Romano Prodi, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Russian President Vladimir Putin also are scheduled.

But skepticism was evident. A gap remains between Merkel's insistence on binding reductions and Mr. Bush's plan to have top polluters set an overall goal but decide themselves how much to do.

"No further meetings are necessary if Bush wants to agree (on) climate targets with 'major emitters,"' said Daniel Mittler, an international climate policy expert with Greenpeace. "Bush should simply sign up to what is necessary this week: Halving global emissions by 2050, compared to 1990 levels."

But a top German official, speaking on condition of anonymity at a background briefing, said the fact that the U.S. and other countries have recently made announcements on combating climate change is a good sign.

"We welcome the fact that they're all being issued in the run-up to our summit," he said. "I think it can be seen as a success of the summit even before it starts."

The meeting also is a coming-out party of sorts for Sarkozy and Abe, who will be making their first appearances at a major global event. The summit also marks a milestone for Blair, who is stepping down June 27 after more than 10 years as prime minister.

The Kyoto Protocol, signed in Japan in 1997, requires industrialized nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions 5 percent from 1990 levels by 2012. The U.S. signed but did not ratify the protocol because it imposed no emissions cuts on developing countries such as China and India.

Mr. Bush and Putin are scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the meeting with an eye toward direct talks on the controversial missile shield that the U.S. wants to deploy in eastern Europe.

The Kremlin is bitterly opposed to the missile shield, and Putin warned Monday that Russia could take "retaliatory steps" if Washington insists on building it.

President Bush added fuel to the fire of rhetoric Tuesday, accusing Putin and his ministers of "derailing" democratic reforms in Russia.