World leaders, wrapping up a summit rocked by a new United States corporate bookkeeping scandal and dissension over President George W Bush’s Middle East policy, on Thursday turned their attention to Africa and a far-reaching programme to provide billions of dollars of assistance to the world’s poorest continent.
Bush, who has lobbied the other leaders to support his new Middle East peace plan and its demand that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat be ousted, was to discuss the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Earlier this week Putin said bluntly that it would be ”dangerous and mistaken” to remove Arafat, saying such an action risked a ”radicalisation of the Palestinian people”.
Putin was emerging as one of the big winner’s at this year’s annual summit of industrial powers. The US and the other rich countries were close to a deal to provide $20-billion in support over the next decade to help Russia dispose of its ageing nuclear stockpile — and keep it out of the hands of terrorists.
On the first day of the two-day summit, the G8 — made up of the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia — announced that finally after years of trying, Russia would be made a full-fledged member of the elite group and be placed in the rotation to serve as host for a summit for the first time in 2006.
Bush, however, had far less success winning support for the Middle East peace plan he announced on Monday, which demanded the removal of Arafat before progress could be made in establishing a Palestinian state.
Other countries did not endorse the call.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair had his first public row with Bush on Wednesday after he stuck to his guns and refused to back the plan.
At an unscheduled early morning meeting with the US president, Blair bluntly insisted that it was up to the Palestinians to elect their own leaders.
French President Jacques Chirac, echoing comments of other European leaders, said: ”It is for the Palestinian people, and them alone, to choose their representatives.”
In defiance of Bush’s call Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath on Wednesday said Arafat would be running for re-election in January as chairperson of the authority.
The heavy security at this year’s summit — thousands of soldiers, tanks and anti-aircraft missiles — served as a visible reminder that the discussions were clouded by the shadow of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The remote location in the Canadian Rockies west of Calgary also sharply reduced the number of anti-globalisation protesters, a marked contrast to last year when thousands of demonstrators clashed with police in Genoa, Italy, resulting in one death.
On terrorism, the G8 produced a new action plan to make airline travel safer and to close what is seen as a major opening for terrorists, inadequate surveillance of the thousands of cargo containers that enter ports around the world every day.
The agenda for the final day was a discussion of Africa and a new compact between the wealthy nations of the world and impoverished African countries. The wealthy nations would provide billions of dollars in new aid and corporate investment to African nations who promise to root out government corruption and pursue free-market reforms.
The leaders were being joined for the discussions by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and the presidents of South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria and Senegal.
On Wednesday the G8 agreed to increase support by only $1-billion for an initiative launched at the Cologne summit in 1999 to provide debt relief for the world’s poorest nations.
Blair had urged fellow members to back proposals to strengthen the HIPC (heavily indebted poor country initiative) trust fund, which provides the money for debt relief. Britain has become alarmed that falling commodity prices and the collapse in world trade have meant that 10 of the countries granted debt relief are still finding repayments unsustainable.