Reuters Summit-Bush must join in global climate fight-IEA

LONDON, June 5 (Reuters) The International Energy Agency today welcomed US President George W Bush's plan to fight global warming beyond 2012, but only if it meant he was moving towards joining efforts steered by the United Nations.

Under pressure ahead of this week's meeting of the Group of Eight industrial nations, Bush said last Thursday he would seek a deal among top emitters on long-term cuts in greenhouse gases.

IEA Deputy Director General William Ramsay said Bush's statement could mark a valuable shift.

''If you can see this as a shift in the rhetoric, it's an opening to bringing people all together round the table,'' Ramsay told the Reuters Global Energy Summit.

But he said there was no sense in developing a different initiative from the UN efforts to combat climate change.

''You can't have a parallel approach. It won't work. You're going to have to find a way to bring these two approaches together,'' he said by video link. The IEA advises 26 industrialised nations on energy matters.

Bush's initiative has shocked European leaders, notably German Chancellor Angela Merkel who had wanted the Group of Eight leading industrialised countries to reach a deal on similar measures at the summit she will host in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm.

REUTERS AM RK2146