Africa Aid Plan & Climate Change: Main Focus of Blair–Bush Meeting

British Prime Minister Tony Blair will meet the U.S. President George Bush today in the afternoon in Washington, D.C. The main focus of the meeting will be aid for Africa and climate change, however other topics, such as Iraq, the Middle East peace process and Afghanistan will be discussed as well.

Mr. Blair's visit in Washington is part of the series of diplomatic visits ahead of the G8 summit to gain the support of international leaders on the most urgent topics listed at the top of G8 agenda. The G8 Summit will be chaired by Mr Blair and he has expressed his desire to see a doubling of international aid to Africa.

During the meetings the aim is to get support for Africa's debt relief, increase the aid of rich countries and build on the Kyoto protocol (that became international law earlier this year) to cut the carbon dioxide emissions.

Last Wednesday President Bush stated his opposition to new aid plans for Africa as proposed by Mr Blair and Finance minister Gordon Brown. However, it is believed there is still some space for negotiations.

In an interview for the Financial Times Mr Blair said: "There are certain things we know they are not going to do, that we are not asking them to do. We are not asking them to sign up to the IFF [International Finance Facility] or 0.7% of (GNP) in aid. They are not going to do that and they’ve made that clear right from the very beginning."

It is expected that after meeting, both will announce a joint initiative dealing with the food needs of people in Ethiopia and Eritrea and other humanitarian needs all over the African continent as well.

Mr Bush is expected to announce £370 million aid to Africa, and apart from this, also £767 million requested by the United Nations to address emergency needs.

Also climate change will be discussed, however, President Bush is opposing the Kyoto protocol where the most developed countries of the world have committed themselves to decrease the emissions of carbon dioxide, instead he prefers the technology-based solution to the climate change.

As the spokesmen of Prime Minister Blair said, these will be just preparation talks ahead of the summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, and not the summit itself: "So we are not expecting... to see the final US position. That will come at Gleneagles."