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Bush Facing Rebuffs On Key Issues at G-8
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The host of the summit, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, has a 26 percent approval rating in opinion polls and has been stuck with a paralyzed parliament since taking over last fall. He has been looking to the summit to help revive his political fortunes by brokering an agreement to cut carbon emissions in half by 2050.
The approval ratings of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, meanwhile, plummeted in recent months to Bush territory, the low 30s. Bringing up the rear is British Prime Minister Gordon Brown: The Independent newspaper recently compiled a "poll of polls" and found that only 17 percent of the British people approved of the government, the most unpopular Labor government in history.
One conspicuous exception to this rule is Russia's new president, Dmitry Medvedev, who arrived here on a wave of popularity at home and seemed eager to cut a profile independent of his patron, Vladimir Putin, the onetime president and current prime minister. Medvedev, 42, the newest member of the G-8 club, met for a little more than an hour Monday with Bush, who said he found the Russian to be a "smart guy."
"I'm not going to sit here and psychoanalyze the man, but I will tell you that he's very comfortable, he's confident, and that I believe that when he tells me something, he means it," Bush told reporters, giving the highest form of praise he offers for his foreign counterparts.
Bush's meeting with Tanzania's Kikwete came after the G-8 leaders spent about three hours with seven African leaders discussing issues concerning Africa. Bush visited Tanzania earlier this year and showed obvious affection for Kikwete on Monday, inviting him to the White House next month for a return visit and praising him for his efforts to curb malaria with U.S. financial assistance.
But as he stood next to Bush, Kikwete politely rebuffed the president's approach on Zimbabwe. He and other African leaders are worried that U.S.-led sanctions could worsen the problem, and some have been pushing for a power-sharing arrangement between Mugabe and his opponents.
"The only area that we may differ is on the way forward," Kikwete said. "We are saying no party can govern alone in Zimbabwe, and therefore the parties have to . . . work together, in a government, and then look at the future of their country together."
U.S. officials acknowledged that African countries are not in agreement on a need for new sanctions.
