Blair and Bush face-off on climate change

Tony Blair will meet US President George Bush this morning as the Prime Minister seeks to strike a deal on climate change at the G8 summit.

Mr Bush has made it clear he will not sign up to any new form of Kyoto Protocol limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

The President warned earlier this week he would act in the best interests of the US at the Gleneagles gathering.

However, Mr Bush has softened his line ahead of the talks and Mr Blair has made it clear he will not allow the President to be isolated.

The British Prime Minister will hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao and India’s premier Manmohan Singh as well as the G8 leaders this morning to seek an international consensus on global warming.

“What we have got to have is a pathway past this G8 that brings the countries of the G8 including America and the main emerging economies together,” he said last night.

“Because if we can’t get agreement between these countries we will never tackle this issue.

“It is too easy for people in this debate to point the finger at America.

“China and India will be major consumers of energy in time to come.”

While the US dispute the science behind global warming the Mr Blair believes he can reach an agreement that avoids the “theology” of the issue.

He argues that increasing scarcity of fossil fuels means that alternatives must be found regardless.

The topic will be discussed at the opening session of the summit before the G8 group is joined by the leaders of China, Indian, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa for more talks.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the heads of the World Trade Organisation, International Energy Agency and President of the World Bank and managing director of the International Monetary Fund will also be present.

In the afternoon, the focus switches to foreign affairs with Iran, Iraq, North Korea and the Middle East expected to dominate talks that will continue through dinner.

African development, which the Make Poverty History and Live 8 campaigns have made the headline issue, will not be discussed until tomorrow.

Irish rock star Bono last night played down the prospects for a deal meeting anti-poverty campaigners’ demands.

After talks with several G8 leaders, including Mr Blair and Mr Bush, he said they had been “very tough meetings” with “risks being taken on both sides”.

“There is a sense that there is not a deal at the moment,” the U2 frontman said. “A lot has been accomplished but there is no sense that there is a real deal, a 50 billion-dollar deal, we are not there on that.

“The trade language, we are not there on that. The debt stuff, we are there on that. It is tricky...these people are making very tricky choices back home.”

Mr Blair was equally cautious, saying: “We took a chance; I took a chance on this G8 choosing Africa and climate change.

“You couldn’t choose two more difficult subjects, but on the other hand what’s the purpose of doing it unless you’re going to try and take the difficult subjects and even if you can’t resolve them, make progress on them.”