Bush gets cool Chirac reception

PRESIDENTS George W Bush and Jacques Chirac smiled for the cameras yesterday at the start of a Group of Eight summit overshadowed by the US-French clash over the Iraq war and concern over Washington’s next moves.

Mr Bush got a short handshake and stiff smile from his loudest critic on arrival in Evian, the French spa on Lake Geneva hosting this year's summit of leading industrial democracies. Mr Chirac gave other leaders a much warmer welcome.

Both Mr Bush and Mr Chirac have said the Iraq dispute, in which France led Germany and Russia in opposing US invasion plans, was now history and both sides should look to the future.

Mr Bush will meet Mr Chirac this morning but will leave Evian in the afternoon, a day before the G8 summit ends, making this what a local newspaper dubbed a "stopover summit" sandwiched in between other high-level meetings in Russia and the Middle East.

"I can't imagine they'll meet without talking about Iraq," said Mr Chirac's spokeswoman Catherine Colonna. "If they do it, it will not be to return to the past that would hardly be useful but to look to the future."

On the summit's sidelines, a senior US official issued a veiled warning to Paris not to try to rally Europeans against Washington again, while Colonna stressed France sought a "multipolar world" with a key role for the United Nations.

Out beyond several heavily-guarded security rings, anarchists and anti-capitalists rampaged through towns in France and neighbouring Switzerland smashing shops and blocking roads to protest against the rich men's club they say rules the world.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators met for the main anti-G8 protest at the French-Swiss border south of Geneva, watched by a massive turnout of French and Swiss riot police.

Protesters charge the Group of Eight the US, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia is an elitist club that runs the world economy.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, one of some 12 guest leaders at Evian, said African countries felt development aid pledges from earlier summits had not been honoured.

The G8 leaders arrived in Geneva, the nearest international airport, and took a helicopter over Europe's largest lake to a luxury hotel above Evian where the June 1-3 summit is being held.

Leaders of 11 developing countries, including China, India, Brazil and Nigeria, mostly crossed Lake Geneva by boat from Lausanne to attend a special session of talks on Africa, debt relief, AIDS and access to clean water and cheap medicines.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the heads of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organisation also attended.

Mr Bush arrived after a reconciliation meeting in St Petersburg with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a friendly handshake with Iraq-war opponent German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Mr Bush's next moves could prove divisive. He has paved his way to Evian with proposals to track illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction, pressure Iran and North Korea to curb nuclear programmes and encourage Europeans to give up their opposition to genetically modified food.

Washington accuses Iran and North Korea of clandestinely developing atomic weapons.

Mr Bush and Mr Putin discussed Tehran's nuclear programme in St Petersburg but Russia says it will continue building a nuclear power plant in Iran.