Leaders turn attention to political issues

Leaders of the world’s major industrialised countries, hoping to regain control of a summit marred by a protester’s death in massive demonstrations, searched today for ways to extend help to poor nations.

But the G8 summit’s emphasis on global poverty did not satisfy anti-globalisation protesters.

They called on the leaders to halt the meetings because of the death of Carlo Giuliani, a 23-year-old Italian protester.

The leaders of the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Italy and Russia faced a full agenda on their second day of talks today, including a discussion of ways to ensure that increased economic links around the globe work to help poor countries too.

Saturday’s discussions also focused on a touchy environmental issue - global warming - with European leaders openly upset with US President George W. Bush’s rejection of the 1997 Kyoto treaty, which would require industrial countries to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.

Bush called the work at this year’s G8 economic summit "compassionate conservatism at an international level", the British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the summit’s biggest achievement - creation of a new global health fund to combat Aids - wouldn’t have happened without the hands-on involvement of the leaders.

A new wave of thousands of marchers flooded the streets on Saturday, but early protests were calm.

Police braced themselves for further attempts by militant groups to breach the summit’s secure zone, a six-square-mile area around summit meeting sites in the heart of Genoa protected by chain-link fences and metal barricades.

Police said today they were looking into bringing manslaughter charges against the policeman who fired at Giuliani. They did not release the officer’s name but said he was a 20-year-old drafted into Italy’s Carabinieri, a military unit that performs police functions. Police said the officer was in shock and had been taken to hospital.

In a joint statement late Friday, summit leaders condemned "the violence overflowing into anarchy of a small minority", and pledged to carry forward with their meetings.

"It is vitally important that democratically elected leaders legitimately representing millions of people can meet to discuss areas of common concern," the leaders said.

Bush, in his weekly radio address, highlighted the summit’s efforts to help poor nations, including the leaders’ pledge to get personally involved in launching a new round of global trade talks, something that demonstrators helped to prevent at a riot-marred meeting in Seattle in 1999.

"Our discussions here in Europe centre on some great goals," Bush said. "We want to spread the benefits of free trade as far and as wide as possible."

Leaders gave no outward sign of being under siege as they sat down for their talks Saturday in a vaulted, ornate hall - despite the presence of 20,000 police and military troops guarding the security zone.

As photographers snapped pictures, French President Jacques Chirac held up his hand for a high-five greeting to Bush, who instead extended his arm for a more statesmanlike low handshake.

The pair grinned for photographers, although Chirac has been leading behind-the-scenes lobbying at this summit for the Europeans to firmly resist Bush’s stance on the Kyoto global warming treaty.

Bush has called the treaty "fatally flawed" and said the United States will not implement in its present form.

Among the political issues on the agenda were the flare-up of violence in the Middle East, the threat of a full-scale civil war in Macedonia and efforts to encourage better relations between North and South Korea.

The G8 will end tomorrow with the issuance of a final statement.

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, the host for next year’s summit, said he had not decided whether the summit should be held at a smaller, possibly more remote location because of the protests.

"I don’t know when I will announce the location," Chretien told reporters, saying other leaders had expressed "frustration with the lack of attention to the substance of the summit" because of the protests.