Bush rebuffed on climate change

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By ASSOCIATED PRESS

TOYAKO, Japan (AP) | President Bush encountered resistance on his climate-change policy as he and other world leaders sought to strike a balance between framing a deal on global warming while coping with inflation and slumping economic growth.

Building a consensus was not proving easy for him as the Group of Eight economic powers planned to turn its attention Tuesday to global warming, soaring food and fuel costs and world conflicts.

Beyond the climate-change standoff, Mr. Bush's proposal to base a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe was rebuffed Monday by Russia's new president, Dmitry Medvedev. And Mr. Bush failed to achieve a consensus among African leaders on sanctions against the government of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe to protest his widely condemned re-election last month after his opposition-party rival dropped out, fearing for his life.

"You know I care deeply about the people of Zimbabwe," Mr. Bush told reporters after a Monday meeting with African leaders. "I'm extremely disappointed in the elections, which I labeled a sham election."

Video:G-8 leaders dig Into environmental issues

African nations are deeply divided, with many reluctant to put public pressure on Mr. Mugabe despite U.N. and Western calls for tough action.

"There were differences. Not all leaders are there yet in terms of sanctions," said Dan Price, a White House national security aide.

The big issue on Tuesday's agenda is climate change; it is certain to be a major topic when Mr. Bush meets one-on-one with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the G-8's strongest advocates for tough reductions in the emissions that contribute to global warming.

She succeeded in winning his backing last year, when the summit was held in Germany, for a statement pledging the group would seriously consider a goal of halving greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 - while failing to persuade him to commit to more specific targets.

Now, as then, Mr. Bush insists major emerging economies such as China and India be included in any plan to cut emissions. But they have so far resisted.

On Wednesday, leaders of the G-8 countries - the U.S., Japan, Russia, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Canada - will be joined by eight other big-polluting "major economy" nations that are not members, including China and India, to see if a wider agreement is possible.

Meanwhile, at his meeting with Mr. Bush on Monday, the new Russian president signaled he is no more supportive of the U.S. plan to base parts of a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe than was his mentor, former president and current prime minister Vladimir Putin.