G8 talks dominated by Iraq, Mideast and debt relief

LEADERS from the Group of Eight industrialised nations are gathering in the US for their annual summit.

The talks on Sea Island, off Georgia are set to be dominated by Iraq, democratic reforms in the Middle East and debt relief for poorer nations.

The summit is only the second time the G8 leaders have met since the divisions of the Iraq war.

It comes as the UN Security Council is poised to pass a new resolution on the handover of power in Iraq. US President George W Bush had originally wanted to focus on promoting democracy throughout the Middle East but though some Arab leaders will be attending, the goals of the summit are modest.

Other leaders of the G8 countries US, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia are anxious not to be seen as dictating reforms to the Muslim world.

Also on the G8 guest list are leaders from Africa, who are likely to be offered more generous debt relief.

The authorities have sealed off Sea Island amid fears that the summit could be one of several high-profile events in the country this summer targeted by the al-Qaida network.

Only those with high-level credentials are being allowed into the secluded resort.

About five miles (8km) long and two miles (1.3km) wide, the private island can be reached only by a two-lane causeway or from the Atlantic Ocean.

Concrete barriers, metal fencing and checkpoints have been put in place around key buildings and routes on the mainland and surrounding islands. Thousands of police officers and National Guard troops are patrolling roads and bridge while military aircraft and gunboats have also been deployed.

Unlike at previous G8 summits, anti-globalisation protests are expected to be low-key.

In response to complaints from European countries, a G-8 document to be released today will stress the need to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The final document also will press Mideast governments to step up efforts at promoting democracy and human rights and encourage greater participation by non-governmental groups, according to a senior US official who briefed hundreds of journalists only under condition that his name not be used.

US officials said a swelling population of undereducated and underemployed young people in the Middle East has to have hope for a better future if the world is to avoid rising extremism.

"The idea that we were somehow buying stability by turning a blind eye to the absence of freedom has been exposed, and exposed in the form of extremism," Mr Bush's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said.

The G8 countries reached consensus on four humanitarian issues. Each measure seemed tailored to burnish Bush's "compassionate conservative" credentials in an election year.

On famine in the Horn of Africa, the eight countries were endorsing efforts to improve worldwide hunger-monitoring and response efforts, to raise agricultural production and bring "food security" to 5 million Ethiopians by 2009.

They were agreeing to take "all necessary steps" to eradicate polio by next year. The disease remains a problem in 15 countries.

On fighting poverty, they were backing efforts to allow migrant workers to send money home less expensively by cutting in half transaction costs, which can reach 15%. They were placing special emphasis on the Mideast.

They were announcing a Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise programme to accelerate the development of a vaccine against AIDS.