De Bush Bende 59

'Blair and Bush: the final reckoning
On the eve of his last G8 meeting, Tony Blair has made a last-ditch appeal to President Bush to repay Britain's loyalty over Iraq
By Andrew Grice, Political Editor
Published: 06 June 2007

Tony Blair will make a final appeal to George Bush to repay his loyal support over Iraq by signing up to a firm global target to cut carbon emissions at the G8 summit in Germany starting today.
Three weeks before he stands down as Prime Minister, Mr Blair will join forces with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, in an attempt to secure a breakthrough in the battle against climate change. They will press a reluctant US president to agree that the world should cut carbon emissions by 50 per cent from 1990 levels by 2050.
Such an outcome from the last international gathering that Mr Blair will attend with President Bush would at last allow him to answer critics who claim he has got little in return for his "shoulder to shoulder" support for the US President, notably on Iraq and other issues related to the "war on terror".
At the summit in Heiligendamm, the Prime Minister will also try to cement another element of his much-vaunted "legacy" - the G8's commitment at the Gleneagles summit two years ago to boost aid to the developing world by $50bn (£26bn) a year by 2010, with half going to Africa. But there are growing fears that countries such as Italy and Canada are backsliding on their commitments. Frantic last-minute talks involving officials from the G8 leading industrial nations took place in Berlin yesterday but the final shape of the crucial decisions will probably go "up to the wire" at the leaders' meeting, which ends on Friday. UK officials said tough negotations lay ahead on global warming and Africa.
As ministers stepped up the pressure on the US to move further on climate change, Downing Street officials admitted there were three sticking points with the US and conceded that Mr Blair may not secure victory on all of them. They insisted that he and Chancellor Merkel were right to "set the bar high" in advance of the meeting even if that led to them being "cruficied" for not achieving all their goals.
Mr Blair believes that Mr Bush made a landmark policy change last week when he committed himself to a long-term worldwide framework to tackle global warming for the first time. But he will press his closest international ally to go further.'

Lees verder: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2617436.ece