GLENEAGLES, Scotland — World leaders faced
pressure from the United States to scale back goals for relieving African
poverty and combatting disease on the world's poorest continent. But British
Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday he planned to keep campaigning for his
ambitious objectives with other world leaders.
The heads of the Group of Eight nations began arriving Wednesday at this posh
golf resort for three days of discussions. Blair, as the host, was first to
arrive, coming from Singapore where he had engaged in a round of last-minute
lobbying on London's successful bid to serve as host for the summer Olympics in
2012.
When asked about reports that Britain is preparing to scale back its demands on
support for Africa and climate change in the face of U.S. opposition, Blair said
he is "prepared to hold out for what is right."
Bush contends that his administration has already done a lot to boost support
for Africa and worries that too much aid in a short period of time would end up
being wasted.
Blair told reporters there was no point in "speculating on what the bones
of the agreement may be because we have not got it yet."
Blair commented at a joint appearance with Irish rock star Bono and Bob Geldof,
who organized the Live 8 concerts last weekend aimed at pressuring G-8 leaders
to do more to fight poverty and disease in Africa.
"Three billion people are urging you to take it all the way," Geldof
told Blair, referring to the number of people organizers have estimated either
attended or watched the weekend concerts on television.
While the world leaders arrived at the resort, thousands of anti-globalization
protesters took to the streets in the nearby village of Auchterarder. They were
led by a bagpiper dressed in a traditional Scottish kilt and chanted "Power
to the people."
Scottish police at first called off the march because they said public safety
could not be guaranteed after a smaller band of 100 protesters smashed car
windows, threw rocks and attempted to block one of the main roads leading to the
resort. However, the police allowed the march to continue after organizers
complained that their free speech rights were being denied.
Later in the day, riot police clashed with demonstrators at one of the security
fences installed along the route to the resort. Dozens of protesters scaled the
fence before being detained by police.
Leaders' aides, meanwhile, met behind closed doors on the two issues Blair has
made the main focus of this year's meeting -- support for Africa, the globe's
poorest continent, and increasing efforts to deal with the pollution that
scientists believe is linked to planet warming.
Blair challenged G-8 countries -- which also include Canada, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan and Russia -- to double aid to Africa from a current total of $25
billion to $50 billion by 2010. Blair also wants member nations to increase
giving for all foreign aid to the equivalent of 0.7 percent of national incomes
by 2015.
Bush, after initially resisting Blair's call, announced last Thursday that he
would seek to double U.S. aid by 2010, to $8.6 billion from $4.3 billion in
2004. But Bush opposes the 0.7 percent target. Anti-poverty activists said
Bush's goal of $8.6 billion fell about $6 billion short of what was needed from
the United States to meet Blair's $50 billion target.
As a consequence, the summit's final communique was expected to drop any
reference to a $50 billion goal in favor of talk more generally of a
"doubling" of assistance, which would represent a disappointment to
anti-poverty activists. Blair emphasized that the final communique was still
being worked on.
Bono and Geldof, who both met with Blair, Bush, German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, appealed for more public
pressure to be exerted over the next two days. Bono predicted the G-8 countries
would enhance their offers before the summit ends Friday, but he conceded that
Blair's goal of doubling support to $50 billion had not yet been achieved.
Bono said Bush said he believed his administration already had made a
substantial commitment by tripling U.S. aid for Africa since 2000. Bono said
Bush indicated the United States was willing to make an offer on scaling back
farm subsidies in such areas as cotton and sugar if the European Union matched
those proposals with its own subsidy cuts. Bono said Schroeder indicated he was
considering further German aid support for Africa.
Earlier Bush, who stopped in Denmark en route to Scotland, warned he would
emphasize the need for African nations to commit to good governance to get
increased support.
The differences were even starker on global warming. Blair wanted a plan to curb
emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. But U.S. officials
lobbied to prevent the inclusion in the G-8 communique of any specific reduction
targets as called for in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The United States is the only
G-8 country that has refused to ratify the Kyoto treaty, with Bush saying to do
so would have "wrecked" the U.S. economy.
Sir Michael Jay, Blair's representative in the discussions, called the
negotiations on global warming "pretty intense." He predicted the G-8
would reach an accord that recognized the problem and the need to combat it
without mentioning specific targets.
Bush said in Denmark that "the surface of the Earth is warmer and that an
increase in greenhouse gases caused by humans is contributing to the
problem."
However, he made plain that mandatory targets are off the table.
Source: Associated Press