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Ailing Bush Skips G-8 Session NewsMax.com Wires HEILIGENDAMM, Germany -- The leaders of the Group of Eight met with African leaders on their summit's concluding day Friday, agreeing on a $60 billion package to fight disease in Africa as diplomats worked behind the scenes on a possible deal with Russia over Kosovo's future. The leaders held their joint session in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm, Germany, without President Bush, who was ill and stayed in his room after meeting privately with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Bush was soon feeling better and rejoined the summit after missing the session with African leaders and another with heads of state from developing nations China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa. In his absence, the other seven leaders, chaired by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, met with the presidents of Egypt, Algeria, Senegal, Ghana, and Nigeria. Earlier, Germany's development minister said in Berlin that G-8 leaders had approved earmarking an additional $60 billion to fight the spread of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Anti-poverty activists complain that the world's richer countries have not kept the promises the G-8 made to increase annual aid to poor countries by $50 billion at the Gleneagles summit in Scotland in 2005. This week, G-8 leaders agreed to earmark $60 billion to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa, Germany's development minister said earlier in Berlin. About half was pledged earlier by the U.S., and other nations will contribute the rest, minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said. Story Continues Below
"It was a very candid and open discussion," Merkel said afterward. "We said that on behalf of the countries of the G-8, that we are aware of our obligations and we would like to fulfill the promises that we entered into and we are going to do that." But the anti-poverty group Oxfam noted that only a fraction of the $60 billion promised for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria represented new aid since the figure was spread over an unspecified number of years and includes money already promised. "The new money announced today is important in the fight against HIV/AIDS and to provide education for all, but it should be seen for what it is: a small step when we need giant leaps," the group said in a statement. Sarkozy said he and Bush discussed the Serbian province of Kosovo - and that the leaders would talk more about the subject Friday. He said their deputies worked late into the night to find agreement on the province's future. The United States and the European Union back a U.N. resolution to give the predominantly ethnic Albanian province supervised independence. Kosovo has been under U.N. supervision since a NATO-led air war in 1999 to halt a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. Serbia, however, considers Kosovo its historic heartland, and has resisted ceding the province. The Russians, Serbia's traditional ally, say they oppose any solution imposed over Belgrade's objections. Sarkozy has proposed imposing a six-month wait on the resolution, during which Belgrade and the Kosovo Albanians would hold further talks. If they reach no agreement, the U.N. plan would then take effect. Officials "worked through part of the night on the Kosovo issue. At the moment, we have not achieved the necessary progress, and I remind you that in my proposal, the key question that I posed was recognizing the need for Kosovo to achieve independence within a certain timeframe," Sarkozy said Friday. "We are going to discuss the issue this morning," he said, though Kosovo was not on the official agenda. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia insisted there should be "no hurry" to resolve the Kosovo issue. In Pristina, Kosovo's prime minister urged the West not to betray Kosovo. "I want to say this to the international community: We have trusted you to bring clarity to Kosovo. We have committed to the U.N. path and we have been very patient," Ceku told The Associated Press on Friday. "I urge you; do not betray this trust." Kosovo also was a focus of the last G-8 summit hosted by Germany, in June 1999, in the weeks after NATO halted its 78-day bombing of what was then Yugoslavia in an effort to drive Serbian forces from the predominantly ethnic Albanian province. At the 1999 summit, held in Cologne, Western powers worked there, too, to smooth over differences with Russia, which had bitterly opposed the bombing campaign. It also coincided with the final withdrawal of all Serbian troops from Kosovo and an agreement by ethnic Albanian rebels of the Kosovo Liberation Army agreed to hand over their heavy weapons. The G-8 also was meeting Friday with the leaders of developing nations Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa, as well as key international figures from the U.N., World Bank, World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund. The G-8 is Germany, the United States, Russia, Britain, Italy, France, Canada and Japan. On Thursday, the leaders reached an agreement on climate change, adopting a statement that says they should "seriously consider" proposals to cut the emissions of greenhouse gases by 50 percent by 2050. The nonbinding language is a compromise between the European Union, which wants mandatory cuts, and the United States, which opposes them. The thousands of protesters who swarmed around the fence sealing off the summit Wednesday and Thursday were gone Friday, with a final anti-G-8 demonstration set for the afternoon in nearby Rostock. In Rostock, Greenpeace floated a hot air balloon over the city, violating a no-fly zone before it landed.
© 2007 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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