Bush, Chirac smile but differ at G8 summit

Presidents George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac smiled for the cameras yesterday but set out divergent views of world order and economic development at a Group of Eight summit overshadowed by their clash over Iraq.

Bush got a short handshake and stiff smile from his loudest critic on arrival in Evian, the French spa town on Lake Geneva hosting this year's summit of leading industrial democracies, well shielded by thousands of police from rioting anarchists.

President Chirac hugged or embraced many other participants, including UN chief Kofi Annan and leaders of a dozen developing nations he had invited to give the "rich men's club" an alternative view of the planet's economic development needs.

Both President Bush and President Chirac have said the Iraq dispute, in which France led Germany and Russia in opposing US invasion plans, was now history and both sides should look to the future.

But the French leader reasserted his vision of a "multipolar world" in which the United States was not the sole dominant power, telling a news conference: "I have no doubt that it enjoys a very broad majority across the world."

He urged President Bush to follow his example by inviting developing countries to the next G8 summit. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said talk of next year's guest list was premature.

Mr Fleischer made clear the Bush administration still resented French efforts to rein in American power.

"We have an alliance. Allies treat each other as partners without regard to poles. It's not a matter of a multipolar relationship. There's no need for somebody to be between the United States and anybody else," he told reporters.

President Bush will meet President Chirac privately today but leave Evian the same afternoon, a day before the summit ends, making this what a local newspaper dubbed a "stopover summit", sandwiched in between other high-level meetings in Russia and the Middle East.

The leaders of the United States, Russia, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada discussed health, water, trade and aid yesterday with leaders from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East in an "extended dialogue", turning the exclusive G8 for an afternoon into a mini-United Nations.

President Bush has challenged Europe to match a $15 billion initiative to fight Aids he announced last week, as well as tearing down trade barriers and accepting genetically modified crops.

President Chirac praised the Aids fund and said he was sure the European Union would match it. European Commission President Romano Prodi said the EU was already outspending Washington in fighting disease in poor countries and questioned how much of the US headline figure was real new money.

Mr Prodi and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said the G8 would discuss currency volatility at their session on the world economy today. The dollar has fallen sharply by about 15 per cent against the euro this year, posing another problem for sluggish European and Japanese economies.

President Chirac's spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said the G8 should send the world "a message of confidence on economic growth".

Beyond several heavily-guarded security rings, anarchists and anti-capitalists rampaged through towns in France and neighbouring Switzerland.

To evade the protests, the leaders were transported by helicopter or boat from Geneva and Lausanne across Western Europe's largest lake to the luxury hotel above Evian where the June 1-3 summit is being held.

President Bush arrived after a reconciliation meeting in St Petersburg with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a friendly handshake with Iraq-war opponent German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

President Bush paved his way to Evian with proposals to track illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction, pressure Iran and North Korea to curb nuclear programmes and encourage Europeans to give up their opposition to genetically modified food.

Washington accuses Iran and North Korea of clandestinely developing atomic weapons. Presidents Bush and Putin discussed Tehran's nuclear programme in St Petersburg but Russia says it will continue building a nuclear power plant in Iran.

Ms Colonna said France thought Bush's plan for a pact to seize shipments of illegal weapons in transit was worth studying, but asked who would do this and under what legal authority.

A British official said a summit declaration would brand terrorism and weapons of mass destruction "the pre-eminent threat to international security".