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Bush Defends His Opposition To Kyoto Treaty
US President Bush sparred Thursday with European leaders over climate change, unwavering in his opposition to a global warming treaty. Sweden's prime minister accused Bush of pursuing ``wrong policies'' that endanger the environment.
Emotions ran high in this quaint seacoast city as hundreds of demonstrators hurled bottles and cobblestones to protest globalization, the European Union and Bush policies. Police arrested more than 200 as the president met with EU leaders at the midpoint of his first overseas trip.
At the meeting behind metal barricades, Bush sought to minimize differences with EU Commission President Romano Prodi and Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson, whose nation holds the organization's rotating presidency.
``We don't agree on the Kyoto Treaty, but we do agree that climate change is a serious issue and we must work together,'' Bush said at a news conference with Prodi and Persson. It was the second day of U.S.-European discord after a breach among NATO allies Wednesday over Bush's plans for a missile defense system.
Bush put Prodi on the spot ¡ª encouraging a question about the failure of most EU countries to ratify the same global warming treaty that Bush is criticized for rejecting. Afterward, at a private dinner with presidents and prime ministers of 15 EU nations, Bush was pointedly told that the global warming treaty ``was the only show in town,'' according to Persson's spokesman.
The Europeans said they would press to ratify the 1997 pact ¡ª known as the Kyoto accord for the Japanese city where it was signed ¡ª while Bush pursued a more modest initiative to boost research and technology that could reduce global warming.
Portugese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres said German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was trying to engineer a compromise with the United States in time for a new round of Kyoto talks next month in Bonn, Germany.
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