PM, Bush to discuss climate change, nuke deal

New Delhi, June 3 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George Bush at their meeting on the sidelines of the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, later this week are expected to give a political push to the nuclear deal issue to expedite finalisation of the 123 agreement and implement the July 18, 2005 agreement.

Dr Singh, who will leave for Germany on June 6 on a four-day visit to attend the meeting of the G8 plus five outreach nations, would only have a brief meeting with Mr Bush as the US President has advanced his departure from Germany, official sources said today.

However, the two leaders are likely to direct the two sides negotiating the language of the agreement to speed up the process and reach a consensus as soon as possible, the sources said.

While the G8 Summit on June 6-8 would be attended by leaders from its members'' the US, the UK, Russia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Italy'' the G8 plus five summit, to be held simultaneously, would have leaders from China, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, besides India.

The main focus of the summit would be climate change on which India and the other outreach nations have serious differences with the US.

India is expected to strongly oppose any move by the US and other industrialised nations to impose equal responsibility on it to cut emissions.

Dr Singh is likely to argue that India had to sustain the present high growth rate to reduce the incidence of poverty and equal responsibility on cutting emissions of green house gases would retard the country's development and the efforts to lift people out of penury, official sources said.

He would also point out that the per capita emission in India was one of the lowest in the world despite the high growth rate.

Further, India was not responsible for the ongoing global warming which was the result of high level of such emissions by the US and the other developed nations in the past, officials said.

During the visit, Dr Singh would have bilateral meetings with several leaders from the G8 and outreach nations.

Such meetings were still in the process of being finalised, the sources said.

UNI