Bush promises to be constructive on climate

US President George W. Bush promised yesterday to be constructive in talks on global warming but said a deal was impossible unless fast-growing China and India agreed to limit their greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate change is high on the agenda of the annual summit of the Group of Eight rich nations that starts today at a luxury hotel on the lush northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

"I'll be constructive. I've always advocated that there needs to be a common understanding and that starts with a goal," Mr Bush told a news conference after meeting Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, the host of the three-day summit.

"And I also am realistic enough to tell you that if China and India don't share that same aspiration, then we're not going to solve the problem," said Mr Bush, who turned 62 yesterday.

China, India and 12 other countries will join the regular members of the G8 - the US, Japan, France, Britain, Germany, Canada, Italy and Russia - for parts of the summit.

Global inflation driven by soaring food and fuel prices will be high on a crowded agenda, as will efforts to alleviate African poverty. Leaders are also likely to condemn the violence that preceded last month's presidential election in Zimbabwe and will discuss North Korea's nuclear programme.

Developing nations including China and India want rich states to shoulder most of the burden of cutting greenhouse gases under a planned pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. UN-led talks on a new framework are due to conclude in Copenhagen in December next year.

But wide gaps within the G8 as well as between rich and developing countries have raised doubts about the chances for progress beyond last year's summit in Germany, where G8 leaders agreed to "seriously consider" a global goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

South Africa, which is also at this year's summit, highlighted the divisions by demanding that rich countries go much further and reduce their emissions by 25-40 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020 and by 80-95 per cent by 2050.