Bush cool on climate deal, offers Blair no favours

LONDON - President George W. Bush has told Tony Blair to expect no favours at this week's Group of Eight summit in return for backing the US-led war in Iraq despite reports of a breakthrough deal on climate change.

Prime Minister Blair has made tackling climate change and relieving African poverty the twin goals of his year-long presidency of the G8. He will host his fellow leaders at the Gleneagles hotel in Scotland from Wednesday to Friday.

"I really don't view our relationship as one of quid pro quo," Bush told ITV1 television in an interview. "Tony Blair made decisions on what he thought was best for keeping the peace and winning the war on terror, as I did.

"So I go to the G8 not really trying to make him look bad or good, but I go to the G8 with an agenda that I think is best for our country."

British media reported on Monday that a frantic last-ditch round of negotiations by senior G8 officials over the weekend in London would result in an accord that goes some way to recognising the science behind global warming.

French President Jacques Chirac said on Sunday the G8 leaders were "heading towards an agreement".

But in the interview, Bush was cautious, and environmental experts said rather than risk an open rift, the eight leading nations had decided on an accord offering the barest minimum on planetary warming.

"If this looks like Kyoto, the answer is 'no'. The Kyoto treaty would have wrecked our economy," Bush said in the interview, which was recorded last Wednesday and will be broadcast later on Monday.

"I think you can grow your economy and at the same time do a better job of harnessing greenhouse gases. That's exactly what I intend to talk to our partners about," he said.

While Blair has made headway on Africa, he has been stymied on climate change by the United States, the world's biggest polluter, which has been grudging in even accepting the world is warming and has not signed up to the Kyoto Protocol.

All the other G8 powers - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia - have signed up to the protocol to cut emissions of carbon dioxide. The protocol finally came into force in February this year.

A British official said talks would go down to the wire with many issues yet to be agreed. "We are not there yet," he said.

ENVIRONMENTALISTS UNHAPPY

Bush did concede in his ITV1 interview that climate change was "a significant, long-term issue that we've got to deal with" and to "some extent" man-made, evidence perhaps of some shift in ground.

But environmentalists said it appeared the G8 summit would provide little or nothing on actually cutting greenhouse gases.

"This is an utterly insufficient statement from the United States which doesn't even accept the scale of the problem we face, let alone its emergency," said Tony Juniper of pressure group Friends of the Earth.

Jennifer Morgan climate change expert at environmental group WWF added: "They have done the absolute minimum on the science and are relying on an action plan in which there is absolutely nothing new."

Rarely has a G8 summit attracted such global attention.

On Saturday, "Live 8" concerts around the world were attended by more than a million people as the pop world pressured politicians to act over African poverty.

More than 26 million people sent mobile phone text messages to support Live 8, and 2 billion people were thought to have tuned in worldwide, using the internet, television and radio.

Blair's officials are confident of real progress on their African agenda, writing off debts for many poor countries and boosting aid.

But much of that money may not come through for 5 years, something aid agencies say will cost countless lives. And on the crucial issue of fairer trade, agreement is far away.

"I don't think they are anywhere near there. Certainly the British negotiators are right up to the wire trying to get a deal done. But I am not sure the others want to do it, which will be a grotesque failure," Live 8 organiser Bob Geldof said.

Bush said he would only cut US farm subsidies if the European Union acted too. "We've got agricultural subsidies, not nearly to the extent that our friends in the EU have," he said.

- REUTERS