[G-8] Countries move closer to accord on aid

From the International Herald Tribune

GLENEAGLES, Scotland In the first full day of talks at the summit of industrialized countries here - a session abruptly rocked by explosions in London - the two most prominent leaders in the Group of 8 appeared to edge closer to agreement on the question of increased aid to Africa, while failing to bridge differences over how the G-8 should address the problem of global warming.

Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, who is the host of the three-day session, has made assistance to Africa and measures to counter global climate change the priorities at this year's G-8 session.

With President George W. Bush supporting him, Blair said Thursday that he believed the G-8 summit would meet the "reasonable expectations" of millions of people across the world regarding fighting poverty in Africa. Blair is calling for free trade, debt relief and increased aid for the poverty-stricken continent.

"We are in a position where I hope very much we can meet the reasonable expectations of many millions of people outside," Blair said after a breakfast meeting with Bush.

Bush, in turn, said he thought it would be a successful summit, and said he was proud of his country's contribution on the African agenda.

"The prime minister set very important goals for the industrialized world to make, which is to help impoverished people in Africa," Bush said. "I am proud of my nation's contribution toward making that goal. All of us are living up to the admonition that much is given, much is required."

Blair left the summit Thursday afternoon as word of the explosions in London reached Gleneagles, while his counterparts continued their meetings.

Blair's Africa Commission report calls for debt relief, fair trade and an extra $25 billion a year in international aid for the continent by 2010, and then a further $25 billion annually up to 2015.

At the same time, Blair said Thursday that differences between the United States and the other industrialized countries at the summit over the Kyoto Protocol on climate change would not be resolved, but that he hoped to build consensus on the way to tackle global warming in the future.

"We are not going to resolve every single issue at the G-8 summit in relation to this. What we can do is narrow the issues down," Blair said.

Seeking to emphasize areas of agreement, Bush praised Blair for inviting China, India and other developing countries to the summit. But there was no masking the deep divide between the United States and its allies on the climate question.

The U.S. president has long asserted that said the Kyoto treaty, aside from being bad for the U.S. economy, is seriously flawed because it does not include developing countries like China and India. Well aware of the impasse with the United States over global warming, Blair has tried to shift the debate toward increasing support for emissions controls in China.

"You made a wise move, Mr. Prime Minister," Bush said.

Bush said he would stick to what he has previously supported - a reduction in U.S. emissions by about 18 percent. "Now is the time to get beyond the Kyoto Protocol and develop a strategy forward," Bush said. "The goal of the United States is to neutralize and then reduce greenhouse gases."

Blair, appearing resigned to failure on achieving specific emissions targets, as set out in the Kyoto treaty, said he hoped to get back on a path to consensus by the time Kyoto expires in 2012. All the G-8 members except the United States have signed the treaty.

"Everybody has got their positions on the existing Kyoto and that is not going to change," Blair said.

Bush also said the United States intended to provide help to impoverished countries by pushing for the elimination of the export subsidies that rich countries provide to their farmers, but which depress the farm exports of poor countries. He proposed a deadline of 2010 - a timetable the European Commission said was unrealistic.

"We would welcome this U.S. proposal with interest," said Claude Véron-Réville, a spokeswoman for the EU trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson.

"Any agreement will have to take place in a negotiated framework at the appropriate time within the World Trade Organization," she said. "We have said that 2010 was not credible."

Under the formula proposed by Blair, the United States would have to donate about $14 billion in aid to Africa for the G-8 to reach its goal of doubling aid from $25 billion, the current level, to $50 billion a year.

On the question of aid increases, knowledgeable insiders said the key to the summit will be talks about the actual figures.