Bush-Putin meeting hangs over wealthy nations' summit

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HEILIGENDAMM, Jun 7 (AFP): US President George W. Bush and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin were to hold a potentially fraught meeting at the Group of Eight summit Thursday as Germany sought a face-saving global warming accord.
German police braced for fresh clashes with thousands of anti-globalisation protesters who have caused chaos around the summit venue on the Baltic Sea coast.
The search for a renewed commitment to development aid for Africa was also expected to feature prominently as the world's wealthiest nations held their first full day of talks.
The day though was set to be dominated by the first Bush-Putin meeting of the year which comes as US-Russia relations have hit a post-Cold War low, mainly because of Russian opposition to American plans for a missile shield in central Europe and US complaints about democracy failings in Russia.
Both sides have sought to ease tensions since Putin threatened at the weekend to aim Russian missiles at European targets if the US shield is deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Bush said Wednesday that Russia was not a "threat" and that it would not attack Europe. A Kremlin spokesman said Putin's warning had only been "one of the possible means" for Russia to respond.
But before arriving in Germany, the US president upped the stakes by accusing Russia under Putin of "derailing" democratic reforms. The Kremlin angrily rejected the accusations.
Russian-US relations have been steadily worsening since Putin said in February that the United States had "imposed itself on other states" and that US dominance in the world was "ruinous."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the meeting's host, will be keen to prevent the Bush-Putin meeting from overshadowing the three-day summit so that the leaders can focus on salvaging efforts to produce an accord that convinces the world that the G8 nations are serious about countering global warming.
Meanwhile, 16,000 German police on duty moved into position for another tense day after spending Wednesday battling protesters who tried to reach the 12-kilometre (seven-mile) long barbed wire fence surrounding the hotel where the leaders are meeting.
Eight police were injured Wednesday as police were forced to use water cannons to remove some of the estimated 10,000 demonstrators who tried to block roads into Heiligendamm.
More than 140 people were arrested, while a court sentenced two Spaniards and a German to 10 months in jail for violence at a major pre-summit march in Rostock at the weekend.
One of the main points of friction between the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States has been global warming.
Merkel has staked Germany's G8 presidency on persuading the leaders to agree to limit the global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent compared with 1990 levels by 2050.
But the United States indicated firmly it was still opposed to any agreement that entails mandatory targets.
Merkel nevertheless insisted the atmosphere in Heiligendamm was "constructive" but conceded that there was no immediate consensus on climate change between the G8 -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
Bush also tried to be conciliatory, saying after talks with Merkel he had "a strong desire to work with you on a post-Kyoto agreement."
The UN-backed Kyoto Protocol on capping greenhouse gases expires in 2012. Negotiations to thrash out a new agreement begin in Bali in December.