Heads of state and government from the world's wealthiest nations arrived in France today with the row over evidence of Iraq's alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) clouding attempts to patch up differences over the US-led attack on the Gulf state.
The gathering formally begsn in the past hour with a working lunch for the leaders along with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the leaders of the World Bank, World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund.
Leaders from nearly a dozen emerging nations including Brazil, China, India and South Africa are also due to take part in an "enlarged dialogue" on economic growth and international cooperation.
Africa will take center stage later today, when G8 leaders meet Mr Annan and the presidents of Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa for talks on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
The Group of Eight comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
Chinese President Mr Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Mr Junichiro Koizumi were the first leaders to arrive in the French resort of Evian, located on the shores of Lake Geneva helicopter.
US President George W Bush and Prime Ministers Tony Blair of Britain, Silvio Berlusconi of Italy and Jean Chretien of Canada; and Russian President Vladimir Putin followed.
|
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is expected later, following a meeting of his ruling Social Democrats in Berlin on a sweeping economic reform package.
Relations between G8 leaders were severely damaged after they split over the US-led war on Iraq. Russia, France and Germany openly opposed and attempted to use the United Nations to avert the attack. The US, with the help of Britain in particular, pressed ahead with the attack and publicly condemned their opponents in decidedly undiplomatic language.
The atmosphere between the French and the US is particularly cool with the country's respective heads of state making little effort to improve the situation at celebrations in St Petersburg, Russia yesterday.
However, Mr Bush and Mr Putin, jointly held a press conference in which both president's referred to their friendship.
Tomorrow will be a key day though, when Mr Bush and Mr Cirac hold their first one-on-one meeting since the discord over Iraq Paris erupted.
The row over the principal pretext for war: evidence of Iraq WMD capability is still dogging the British Prime Minister, in particular after press reports that Mr Blair was aware that the intelligence he had received was far from conclusive.
But he hit back his critics this morning, saying he was convinced that the as yet undiscovered weapons would be found.
"Any suggestion that we somehow manufactured the intelligence is completely and totally false," he told reporters travelling with him from Saint Petersburg, where he joined other leaders marking the city's 300th anniversary.
"I simply ask people: make your judgement when you see the evidence, don't make your judgement before you see the evidence," said Blair, the staunchest ally of US President George W. Bush in the war.
Assembling the information from perhaps thousands of sites in Iraq would take time, he said. "I have always said to people: let's do this in a deliberate and considered way."
Blair has invested a large amount of his credibility in uncovering evidence of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons, which British intelligence dossiers suggested before the war were ready to use within 45 minutes.
The issue of weapons proliferation will also take up much of the time at today's meeting. Mr Blair said that halting the spread of weapons of mass destruction was too important to ignore, and pledged to work for a joint declaration on the matter.
"I think the most important thing, particularly after all the differences there's been over Iraq, is that the international community comes back together and sends a very clear signal and statement that we will do everything we can, collectively and individually, to deal with this issue, and that we recognise that this is serious and important and a real security threat."
AFP