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Tuesday, July 5, 2005

Bush was making a quick stop in Denmark before heading to Scotland, where rich nations are being asked to do more to ease poverty in Africa.

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The president and the other leaders were holding three days of talks at the Group of Eight summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, where British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who set the agenda as this year's host, wants to achieve breakthroughs not only on African aid but also on climate change.

Bush, wife Laura and daughter Jenna accompanied the president to Europe. The first lady and Jenna are traveling to Africa after the Scotland summit to join the Bushes' other daughter, Barbara, for about a week. Barbara has been involved in an AIDS project.

The summit follows last weekend's Live 8 concerts that featured top musicians at free rock concerts in 10 cities around the world to raise awareness about Africa's plight and bring pressure on G-8 leaders to act.

The leaders are expected to agree on billions of dollars in new support for Africa, the world's poorest continent.

Beyond Africa, Blair has made climate change a central issue of Britain's G-8 presidency, describing it as "probably the most serious threat we face." He wants an agreement among G-8 leaders on the scientific threat posed by global warming and the urgent need for action.

The United States is the only G-8 country that has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Bush declared last week on Danish television that meeting the Kyoto emission reduction targets would have "wrecked" the U.S. economy.

Environmentalists would like to see a strong statement on the issue coming out of the G-8 meeting, even without Bush's concurrence.

French President Jacques Chirac on Sunday called for a statement to include specific mention of Kyoto, which took effect in February and obliges participating industrialized nations to reduce their combined greenhouse gas emissions.

Bush, in an interview with Britain's ITV television Monday, renewed his insistence that Washington would not sign Kyoto or any similar deals limiting gas emissions. Still, he described climate change as "a significant, long-term issue that we've got to deal with" and acknowledged that human activity is "to some extent" to blame.

"My hope is - and I think the hope of Tony Blair is - to move beyond the Kyoto debate and to collaborate on new technologies that will enable the United States and other countries to diversify away from fossil fuels so that the air will be cleaner and that we have the economic and national security that comes from less dependence on foreign sources of oil," Bush said.

On Tuesday, Bush became only the second sitting U.S. president to visit Denmark, where he was expressing appreciation for the several hundred troops the Scandinavian nation has sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. trans-Atlantic relations and advancing freedom around the world also will be on Bush's agenda during talks Wednesday with Denmark's prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

"I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep on the soil of a friend," Bush said in an interview leading up to his first stay in the country.

Many in Europe are angry with Bush about the war in Iraq. Public opinion about the war has been slipping recently in the United States, but has been the subject of much greater anti-war demonstrations in Europe.

"In defense of my policies, I did go to the United Nations, not only for Afghanistan, but for Iraq," Bush said in the interview with Danish Broadcasting Corp. "And we did work with allies and we did ask people's opinion. And we put a coalition together, of which your great country joined. And I'm thankful for your prime minister's tough decision."

After breakfast and a bilateral meeting Wednesday morning with Rasmussen, the president and Mrs. Bush will attend a luncheon hosted by the Queen Margrethe and her French-born husband, Prince Henrik.

In Scotland the rest of the week, Bush will join the leaders of Britain, Russia, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan at a luxury hotel and golf resort in Gleneagles under heavy security.

Police braced for demonstrations away from the summit. On Monday in Edinburgh, groups of up to 200 demonstrators, some dressed as clowns, roamed the streets, banging drums, blowing whistles and taunting officers. Police said they had made nearly 30 arrests.

The demonstrators want rich nations to provide even more aid help to Africa than they've already pledged and be held accountable for whatever they promise.

© 2005 The Associated Press

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