Down Under, Bush Pushes for Climate Change Shift and Free Trade

SYDNEY, Australia — President Bush used meetings with China's president and a top Australian politician on Thursday to defend his positions on climate change, free trade and international security, the key topics on the table at a major international forum this weekend.

During a meeting in downtown Sydney, Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao discussed Iran, North Korea and Sudan as well as "climate change and our desire to work together on climate change," Bush said.

Bush also said that Hu "extended an invitation to me and Laura and our family to come to the Olympics. And of course, I was anxious to accept."

White House press secretary Dana Perino later told reporters that Bush had stressed that "he was going to the Olympics for the sports and not for any political statement."

In an earlier meeting with Kevin Rudd, a politician challenging Australian Prime Minister John Howard in an election expected later this year, Bush defended his strategy in Iraq. Rudd has said that if he wins the election he will pull Australian troops out of Iraq.

The leaders were gathered in Sydney for meetings of the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation annual forum on Saturday and Sunday.

Australia is suffering its worst recorded drought, and Howard is pushing leaders at the meeting to make a joint statement to combat climate change.

A draft declaration for the meeting calls on member states to set "aspirational" goals for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, which cause global warming, and Bush and Howard pledged Wednesday to increase cooperation to improve technologies — including new kinds of nuclear reactors — that can replace fossil fuels.

But some APEC member states were skeptical of the effort to make climate change a top issue for the forum.

Speaking with Bush at a news conference, Chinese President Hu said the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 United Nations-sponsored effort that sets targets for industrialized nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions, should "remain the main channel for international efforts to tackle climate change."

Neither the United States nor Australia has ratified the Kyoto agreement. Both Bush and Howard have argued that the treaty is insufficient because it does not require developing nations, including China, to make emissions reductions until after 2012.

"I know some say, well, since he's against Kyoto he doesn't care about the climate change," Bush told reporters Wednesday. "That's urban legend that is preposterous."

China overtook the United States last year as the world's top emitter of gases causing global warming, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, a research group that advises the Dutch government, announced in April.

Developing nations including China have argued that wealthy nations should face more severe restrictions because they have produced large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions for many years.

Because of the differences in opinion, "it might be difficult to get a strong statement out of the 21 leaders," said Malcolm Cook, an expert in the Asia-Pacific region at the Lowry Institute for International Policy, an Australian think tank.

Finding concrete ways to foster free trade — the main purpose of the APEC forum when it was founded in 1989 — also will be difficult, experts said.

Talks begun in 2001 in Doha, Qatar to cut subsidies and tariffs, particularly on agricultural products, have been bogged down for more than a year because of concerns that freer trade would hurt domestic producers.

A main objective of the weekend meeting will be to "give added momentum" to free trade, said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University's Tokyo campus.

"I think they are just trying to make sure that the death of the Doha talks doesn't mean an end to further trade liberalization," he said.

Bush also will use the gathering to push his security policies.

Bush will meet separately with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday and is likely to seek their support to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons and to stop Iran from developing a nuclear capability.

Bush also hopes to shore up Australian support for security efforts in Iraq.

Prime Minister Howard pledged this week to keep roughly 1,600 Australian soldiers in Iraq until the situation improves. But Rudd, who is leading Howard by a wide margin in election polls, has vowed to pull the troops out of Iraq if he is elected.

THE APEC SUMMIT AT A GLANCE

WHO: 21 countries and economies bordering the Pacific Ocean, including Australia, Canada, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States, and Vietnam. The APEC nations represent more than one-third of the world's population and generate roughly 60 percent of the global economy.

WHAT: The APEC summit, held annually, was started in 1989 by countries seeking to promote trade and investment. The focus has broadened to include the most pressing regional concerns. This year, leaders will focus on free trade, global warming and regional security, particularly how to persuade North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons.

WHERE: Sydney, Australia's largest city with nearly 4 million people.

WHEN: Bush arrived in Sydney on Tuesday for meetings with leaders including Australian Prime Minister John Howard. APEC meetings will be held on Saturday and Sunday [September 8 and 9].