Leaders turn attention to poverty, ecology

GENOA (ITALY), JULY 21. Leaders of the world's major industrial countries, struggling to regain control of a summit marred by a protester's death, said on Saturday that they were providing real help to the billion people in the world living in extreme poverty.

But the Group of Eight summit's emphasis on global poverty did not satisfy anti-globalisation protesters. They called on the leaders to halt the meetings because of the death of Mr. Carlo Giuliani, a 23-year-old Italian protester, killed by police the day before.

Police fired tear gas at demonstrators again on Saturday as tens of thousands of marchers flooded the streets near the international summit here. Many in the crowd shouted ``Assassins, assassins!''. Leaders at the summit, while expressing sorrow over the death, said, ``our work goes on''. The leaders of the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Italy and Russia faced a full agenda on their second day of talks on Saturday, including discussion of such hotspots as West Asia and Macedonia, and global warming.

In a joint statement issued on Friday, the leaders of the summit countries condemned ``the violence overflowing into anarchy of a small minority'' and pledged to carry forward with their discussions.

Most of the tens of thousands of marchers - representing trade unions, environmental organisations, farmers, anarchist groups and the unemployed - were demonstrating peacefully to express anger and concern over the ill-effects of globalisation and the widening gap between rich and poor.

Meanwhile, the protests were spreading, with demonstrations in Greece, Germany, Switzerland and Canada.

There were signs that the G-8 countries, which had already refashioned their annual gatherings in an effort to show more concern about poor countries, were searching for ways to do more.

The Italian Foreign Minister, Mr. Renato Ruggiero, said the next G-8, to be held in Canada in 2002, could take another form. He said on issues, the global health fund created this year could be followed next year by a fund to support education in poor nations.

The Canadian Prime Minister, Mr. Jean Chretien, has said he was studying the possibility of moving the discussions to a smaller, more out-of-the way place.

The U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush, in his weekly radio address, highlighted the summit's efforts to help poor nations, including the leaders' pledge to get personally involved in a launching a new round of global trade talks, something that demonstrators helped to prevent at a riot-marred meeting in Seattle in 1999. ``Our discussions here in Europe centre on some great goals,'' Mr. Bush said. ``We want to spread the benefits of free trade as far and as wide as possible.''

The British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, said the summit's biggest achievement - creation of a new global health fund to combat AIDS - wouldn't have happened without the hands-on involvement of the leaders.

As photographers snapped pictures, the French President, Mr. Jacques Chirac, held up his hand for a high-five greeting to Mr. Bush, who instead extended his arm for a more statesmanlike low handshake.

Mr. Chirac and Mr. Bush continued to be at odds over the Kyoto treaty on Saturday, and the French feared they were becoming increasingly isolated.

French sources said Mr. Chirac pleaded once again for language restricting greenhouse gas emissions. However, the British, the Germans and Italians proposed that the final statement stress just the broad objectives of Kyoto.

The summit ends on Sunday with a final statement. Talks on Saturday centred around trying to find language that all the eight could accept.

- AP

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Front Page
Previous : Basic phone services for one company
Next     : Mamata not in a hurry to return to NDA?