PM to focus on terrorism, energy at G8

New Delhi, July 15: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who leaves for St Petersburg tomorrow to attend the G8 summit of industrialised nations, is expected to keep India's focus on terrorism and energy, including nuclear power, at the ''outreach'' and bilateral meetings with Presidents George W Bush and Vladimir Putin and other leaders.

Even as the summit, whose main agenda will be energy security, itself is likely to take up the issue of global terrorism in a big way in the wake of the serial blasts in Mumbai trains and in Srinagar earlier this week, Dr Singh is likely to call for a campaign against cross-border terrorism, particularly in South Asia.

The last summit of G8 -- US, Russia, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy and Japan -- held at Gleneagles, UK, from July 6-8 had been rocked by serial blasts in London on July 7, prompting its leaders to declare that nothing would deter the international community from carrying out a united fight against the menace.

Dr Singh had made a similar declaration following the Mumbai blasts, which claimed over 190 lives, stating that terror cannot make India kneel and that the country would unitedly wage a relentless war until the scourge was wiped out.

In his meetings with leaders of G8 and those invited for the outreach meeting -- China, Brazil, South Africa, Congo and Kazakhstan, -- the Prime Minister, would in all probability, call for measures that would act a counter to state-sponsored terrorism, besides steps to check the oil prices in the international market which have touched an alarming 78 dollars a barrel.

Among the leaders with whom he would have bilateral talks are Mr Putin and Mr Bush, Chinese President Hu Jintao, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, official sources said.

At their talks, Dr Singh and Mr Bush are likely to apprise each other of the steps taken by their countries for early implementation of the historic but controversial July 18, 2005, deal for cooperation in civil nuclear energy.

The sources said the G8 summit, whose members who make up the key constituents of the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), is expected to give its tacit approval for the Indo-US nuke deal.

While the US Senate and House committees have recently given the go-ahead for amending American laws for the proposed cooperation, ''productive'' talks were held between top officials of New Delhi's nuclear establishment and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for formulating India-specific safeguards for 14 of its 22 thermal nuclear reactors which would be thrown open for international inspections under the deal.

UNI