Leaders head to G8 summit

The leaders of the G8 industrialised nations were heading to Germany today for the group's annual summit.

They were bracing themselves for what is likely to be a contentious round of talks aimed at combating climate change and for a chiding from aid groups over previous pledges to relieve African poverty.

The meeting, to be held in Heiligendamm, has already been the subject of violent protests, with rioting over the weekend in nearby Rostock, described as Germany's worst in decades.

Among the main topics up for discussion is the issue of climate change, and the leaders will have to overcome major differences - particularly between the United States and European Union.

Heading into the conference in the picturesque holiday town on the Baltic coast, Chancellor Angela Merkel has insisted she would like to reach agreement with the other seven leaders to have the United Nations oversee establishment of a future pact on curbing global warming.

In Berlin, advisers to President George Bush told reporters he was eager to find some common ground with Merkel on climate change.

They said that despite differences between the US and German proposals there "is more agreement than disagreement".

McCormick said Bush spoke with Merkel last week and told her that any follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol must be handled within a United Nations framework, a key demand of the Chancellor.

In hopes of helping to smooth the talks, Merkel plans to meet the other leaders individually before the summit's official opening on Wednesday, starting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and followed by Bush.

Talks with outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair, Italian premier Romano Prodi, Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Russian president Vladimir Putin are also scheduled.

But scepticism was evident among many campaigners.

"No further meetings are necessary if Bush wants to agree (on) climate targets with 'major emitters'," said Daniel Mittler, an international climate policy expert with Greenpeace. "Bush should simply sign up to what is necessary this week: halving global emissions by 2050, compared to 1990 levels."

But a top German official said the fact that the US and other countries have recently made announcements on combating climate change is a good sign.

"We welcome the fact that they're all being issued in the run up to our summit," he said. "I think it can be seen as a success of the summit even before it starts."

The meeting will also introduce Sarkozy and Abe, who will be making their first appearances at a major global event. The summit also marks a milestone for Tony Blair, who is stepping down on June 27 after more than 10 years as British prime minister.

Abe has made climate change a priority for the meeting and plans to present a proposal, unveiled last month, calling for the world to aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050 as part of a new global warming pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

But he warned that the topic, which Merkel has made a hallmark of Germany's G8 presidency, will not be easily decided.

"There is still a gap between the European Union and the United States, so Japan needs to take the initiative to steer toward a direction that each country can approve of generally," Abe said in Tokyo before leaving for Germany.

The Kyoto Protocol, signed in Japan in 1997, requires some 35 industrialised nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5% from 1990 levels by 2012.

The US never signed up to the protocol and Japan and other nations have struggled to meet their Kyoto commitments.

At the opening of a G8 "alternative summit" in Rostock hosted by organisations like Oxfam and Greenpeace, some 1,000 people pushed for solutions on the fight against poverty, militarisation and migration issues, and urged Merkel to provide leadership in climate protection.

"We need clear reduction goals without summit rhetoric," Greenpeace spokesman Karsten Smid said.