G-8 Leaders Trade Conflicting Views on Warming

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A Tense Summit: G-8 Leaders Gather in Germany
Leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations formally kicked off their annual summit June 6, 2007, in Germany. Western European nations are hoping to secure climate-change concessions from the U.S., while President Bush and Russian President Putin are scheduled to discuss a controversial anti-missile program that Russia vigorously opposes.

Most demonstrations by G-8 opponents were peaceful, although police sprayed protesters with three blasts from water cannons at one checkpoint near the fence in response to a stone-throwing incident, said Lueder Behrens, a police spokesman.

By late afternoon, police reported 137 arrests. No serious injuries were reported, in contrast to demonstrations over the weekend in the nearby city of Rostock, where an estimated 1,000 police officers and protesters were injured.

Police, hoping to prevent the protesters from getting anywhere near the summit site, had set up roadblocks on all the paved routes leading to Heiligendamm several days ago.

But early Wednesday, an estimated 10,000 demonstrators easily evaded security forces by tramping through farmers' fields to reach the fence. The protesters then turned the tables by dragging logs and branches across roads to make it more difficult for police to chase them.

They also blocked a tourist railroad that summit organizers had used to transport journalists to Heiligendamm, forcing the Germans to move reporters by boat instead.

Bush said he hoped his Thursday session with Putin would help ease tensions. The two leaders have exchanged barbs recently over U.S. plans to build a missile defense system in Europe and over what Bush has called "derailed" democratic reforms in Russia.

"Russia's not a threat, nor is the missile defense we're proposing a threat to Russia," Bush said, repeating his assertion that the system is intended to protect against attack from "rogue" countries, including Iran. Despite those assurances, Putin has said he might respond by re-aiming some of his missile arsenal at targets in Europe.

Bush said there was no need to respond militarily to Putin's threat. "I don't think Vladimir Putin intends to attack [Europe], and so I'll talk to him about it," he said.

Kremlin officials also eased their rhetoric Wednesday and played down suggestions that Russia had intended to threaten anyone with the suggestion of aiming the missiles at Europe.

"Russia is the last country in this world that is thinking about confrontation or another Cold War," Dmitri Peskov, a spokesman for Putin, said in a conference call with reporters.

He said Putin was looking forward to meeting with Bush one-on-one Thursday. "We think it will be a very good opportunity for our two presidents to continue their very transparent, open and sincere exchange of views."

But Peskov said Russia remains firmly opposed to the missile shield.

"It is not a secret that we still cannot understand the purpose of the deployment of that shield," he said. "All the explanations were insufficient, and the statement that this shield is not aimed at Russia is not satisfactory."