http://www.gulfnews.com/world/Japan/10226820.html
AP
Published: July 07, 2008, 09:13
Rusutsu: The world’s top industrialized nations faced demands at their annual G8 summit on Monday to reinvigorate the stumbling world economy, push ahead
languishing climate change talks, and make good on pledges to battle poverty and hunger.
Leaders from the Group of Eight – the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Italy and Russia – began gathering in the northern Japanese resort village of Toyako on Sunday for three days of meetings among themselves and with heads of African nations and rapidly developing countries such as China.
The summit also coincides with demanding foreign policy issues such as the effort to strip North Korea of its nuclear weapons, mounting international pressure on Iran to stop its uranium enrichment program, and the threat of UN Security Council sanctions on Zimbabwe over its recent one-sided presidential election runoff.
The meeting’s Japanese hosts poured security agents and riot police – about 20,000 of them – into the isolated venue and surrounding towns, sealing access to the summit hotel and cloistering the 5,000 journalists covering it at Rusutsu, a resort 20 miles away.
Protesters were limited to rural villages or the distant city of Sapporo.
Despite the demanding agenda, concerns were high that the political uncertainties in some member countries – particularly the United States, where President George W. Bush is 200 days away from the end of his term – could prevent decisive action. The leaders of France, Japan and Britain also face domestic problems.
Bush urged his fellow leaders Sunday to push forward stalled talks on world trade in the so-called Doha Round and to pour more aid into Africa, after a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.
Climate change Is a top agenda item for the summit. UN-led talks aimed at forging a new global warming accord by the end of 2009 have stalled because of deep disagreements over what targets to set for greenhouse gas reductions, and how much developing countries such as China and India should be required to participate.
With global oil prices surging, the G8 leaders are expected to urge major oil producers to increase supplies while also calling for steps to improve energy efficiency and develop alternative sources of energy. Oil spiked to a record US$145.85 a barrel last Thursday.
It was unclear how effective a call by the G8 to boost oil production would be when the group does not include Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter of crude, or any OPEC members.
In a measure of the expectations on the group, Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday urged the G8 to help the world’s poor.
“Many voices have been raised asking G8 leaders to realize the commitments made at previous G8 appointments and to courageously adopt all necessary measures to conquer the plagues of extreme poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy,” Benedict said in a speech at Castel Gandolfo near Rome.
