World leaders gather at the annual G8 summit preoccupied by soaring food
and oil prices and deeply divided over how to tackle climate change. 

TOYAKO, JAPAN (JULY 7, 2008) G8 HOST FEED -
World leaders and senior officials from the Group of Eight arrived
for the group's annual summit held on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido
on Monday (July 7).

    The G8 leaders will discuss poverty and development in Africa, the
world's poorest continent,  discuss response to elections in Zimbabwe that
most Western leaders called a sham, pile pressure on the United States to
agree to a target to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century and
tackle global food and energy security.
    The international community must act without delay to ease the plight
of tens of millions of people suffering under soaring global food prices, the
heads of the United Nations and the World Bank said on Monday. 
    A preliminary World Bank study released last week estimated that up to
105 million people could drop below the poverty line due to rising food
prices, including 30 million in Africa. 
    "The world faces three simultaneous crises - a food crisis, a
climate crisis and a development crisis. The three crises are deeply
interconnected and need to be addressed as such,"  U.N. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon said. 
    Grain prices have more than doubled since January 2006 with 60 percent
of the rise occurring this year. 
    "How we respond to this double jeopardy of soaring fuel and food
prices is a test of the global system's commitment to help the most
vulnerable. It is a test we cannot afford to fail. This G8 summit must bring
hope to those without hope, food to those without food. For globalization to
succeed and achieve its promise, it must be both inclusive and
sustainable,"    World Bank President Robert Zoellick said.
    With oil prices at record highs above $140 a barrel, the world's poor
faced a double jeopardy, Zoellick said. 
    This year's summit, in a remote corner of Japan amid rolling hills, has
seen only a couple of thousand protesters gather and they are outnumbered by
police by around 10 to one.
    On Monday (July 7), the first day of the summit, several hundred
demonstrators left two camp sites around Lake Toya to walk in the rain towards
the lakeside resort where the G8 leaders were holding talks with their
counterparts from seven African countries.
    "Finally, starving people all around the world are standing up for
justice which the media is maliciously labelling as 'rioters seeking food'. We
have to demonstrate our solidarity with them," Shigeki Okuno, 21-year-old
chairman of all Japan Student Union said.
   Japanese authorities had given permission for protest walks to take
place in the morning but stopped one group from going further than allowed and
another group tried to leave its camp again in the afternoon.
    From a second camp further east, up to 100 European and Japanese
protesters tried to set out on an unauthorised walk in the afternoon.
    They walked 2-3 km (1-2 miles) down a narrow road without banners or
calling out slogans, saying they were just going to a railway station, but
were stopped by rows of police armed with riot shields and wearing helmets
calling "go back, go back".
    Meeting on the sidelines of the summit,  U.S. President George W. Bush
and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev discussed North Korea and Iran
and other issues of mutual concern.
    "There are certain questions on our agenda where we agree and
these are the matters related to Iran, North Korea and there are others with
respect to European affairs and missile defence where we have
differences," Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev said referring to the
planned American missile shield program.  The U.S. is due to sign a treaty
this week with the Czech Republic to build a missile defence radar there.
Washington is also negotiating to put 10 interceptor rockets in Poland that it
says will protect the United States and European allies from threats from
"rogue states" such as Iran. 
      Russia sees the shield as a threat, and has said it will aim its
nuclear missiles at central Europe if the shield is deployed. The United
States counters that the 10 rockets are no match for Russia's nuclear arsenal.

      Meeting for the first time since Medvedev was sworn in as president
in May, the two leaders stressed on areas where they had found common ground
-- preventing Iran from obtaining atomic weapons and ending North Korea's
nuclear weapons program. 
     The G8 leaders are expected to unveil a series of measures to help
Africa, especially its farmers, and would affirm its commitment to double aid
to the world's poorest continent to $25 billion a year by 2010. The need to
honour past aid pledges to Africa was a recurring refrain at Monday's talks.

    Leaders are also due on Tuesday to finalise a statement on the
political crisis in Zimbabwe after a violent election that extended President
Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule. 
    Mugabe was the only candidate in the June 27 run-off vote after
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out citing state-sponsored violence
against his party. 
    G8 leaders slammed the poll on Monday. Bush called it a sham, while
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called it illegitimate and said she would back
more sanctions. 
     "I have made very clear that I see the presidential election as
illegitimate. It also became evident that there is considerable criticism
coming from the African Union regarding the situation in Zimbabwe, although
there are different proposals how to proceed. Speaking for Germany, I do not
rule out further sanctions against," Merkel said.
    The summit wraps up on Wednesday (July 9) with a Major Economies
Meeting comprising the G8 and eight other big greenhouse gas-emitting
countries, including India and China and Australia.