Bush, Chirac discuss differences

Jordan Times, Friday, June 11, 2004

SEA ISLAND, Ga. (Reuters) — US President George W. Bush and his French counterpart Jacques Chirac sought to iron out differences on a NATO role in Iraq on Thursday at a Group of Eight summit that is focusing on Baghdad's transition, the Middle East and Africa.

Leaders from six African countries — Algeria, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda — were to meet with the G-8 leaders at the Georgia resort of Sea Island to find ways of dealing with the wars raging on their continent, development issues and fighting AIDS.

Bush held a bilateral meeting with Chirac — a leading opponent of the invasion of Iraq last year — and told reporters afterwards they had discussed "whether or not there is a continued role in Iraq for NATO."

"I assured the president that we will continue to consult closely. The point is we understand that the Iraqi people need help," said Bush, who was buoyed by a unanimous UN Security Council resolution passed on Tuesday that approved plans for an interim government in Iraq.

The United States has about 130,000 troops in Iraq and, along with Britain, is seeking greater involvement by the Western military alliance in dealing with the precarious security situation. "I heard caution on the part of the French, but not a hard 'no.' I think the French are cautious about a visible NATO role," said a senior Bush administration official who attended the Bush-Chirac meeting.

But a French spokesman said after the Bush-Chirac talks that Chirac believed it would be "clumsy" for NATO to have an expanded role in Iraq. Bush on Wednesday obtained the agreement of the seven other group members on an initiative to push democratic and economic reform in the Middle East after revising the plan to include a commitment to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The group — the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia — issued a statement on Thursday urging rapid action to get the Arab-Israeli peace plan back on track.

It said the G-8 would join with others in the international community, led by the so-called Quartet of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, to restore momentum on the "roadmap" for peace.

A senior Bush administration official said G-8 officials worked into the night to try to reach a deal on how generous an aid commitment to make towards the world's poorest countries, the vast majority of them African.

The HIPC, or Highly Indebted Poor Countries, initiative that now includes nearly 40 countries that qualify for debt relief or forgiveness, is scheduled to expire in December.

"Probably the announcement today will be that the HIPC program will be extended," a US official said.

Also on the agenda for the talks with African leaders will be G-8 plan to train and equip about 75,000 soldiers for peacekeeping duties throughout the world. The plan is due to be launched in Africa, where wars are raging in Sudan and Congo and periodically flare up in several West African nations.

The G-8 issued a statement urging Sudan's government to immediately disarm Arab militias and other armed groups waging a campaign of looting, burning and rape in the remote western Darfur region.

Aid agencies said on Thursday the fact the G-8 had agreed on debt relief for Iraq, albeit without setting a figure on how much of the debt they would like to pardon, meant the group had the political will to address the needs of the poor.

But Irungu Houghton, Africa policy adviser for international charity Oxfam, noted the Africans had only been invited to Sea Island three weeks ago. "This seems to be an afterthought," he said.

The G-8 proposals on Africa were also expected to include a plan to coordinate research for a vaccine against the HIV virus that causes AIDS and one to fight famine in the Horn of Africa.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python (Alquds, 1/25/03.

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah's.

editor@aljazeerah.info