World summit turning attention to nuclear threats

After failing to resolve their differences on economic strategy, world leaders are turning their attention to grappling with some of the globe's toughest foreign policy problems.

President Barack Obama and other leaders of the Group of Eight major industrial countries were scheduled to open their second day of talks Saturday focused on nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea.

On Iran, the U.S. and European nations will push other major powers to join them in imposing tough new sanctions on Tehran over its suspect nuclear program, a move that would build on expanded U.N. Security Council measures adopted this month. But China and Russia only reluctantly supported those sanctions and have balked at new unilateral steps against Iran.

The foreign policy discussions among the leaders of the G-8 - the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia - were taking place after an opening day of talks during which the group failed to resolve a dispute over the proper mix of government spending and deficit reductions needed to keep the global economy on track.

Obama made the case that the global economy remained fragile and should not be put at risk by countries moving too rapidly to trim their bulging deficits through spending cuts and tax increases, which can slow economic growth.

But leaders of Britain, Germany, Canada and Japan argued that deficit cuts were needed to reassure nervous investors, given the severe market turmoil experienced in May after the near-default of Greece on its huge debt burden.

The G-8 talks were being held in a resort that is a two-hour drive north of Toronto. After they wrap up at midday Saturday, the G-8 leaders were scheduled to travel to Toronto for discussions with the larger Group of 20, which includes not only the wealthy nations but major emerging powers such as China, Brazil and India.

The G-20 leaders' summit, launched in response to the global financial crisis in the fall of 2008, has now replaced the G-8 as the world's premier forum for discussing and coordinating economic policy.

In addition to the group discussions, the leaders were holding a series of one-on-one talks.

Obama was meeting Saturday with new British Prime Minister David Cameron for the first time since Cameron took power last month. Those talks were expected to cover the difficulties posed by the BP oil spill, the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Obama was also meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak to discuss South Korea's push for action by the U.N. Security Council to hold North Korea accountable for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

In a third meeting, Obama was holding talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, a week after China announced it would start allowing its currency, the yuan, to rise in value against the dollar. The administration had been pushing China to take this step as a way of boosting U.S. exports to China.

In Toronto, hundreds of protesters moved through city streets Friday, but police in riot gear blocked them from getting near the summit security zone. Some 19,000 law enforcement officers, from all over Canada, were providing security at a cost of more than $900 million.

The protests have been tame compared with past summits. The largest demonstration, sponsored by labor unions, was planned for Saturday.

Obama arrived in Canada fresh from a congressional win on financial overhaul, a victory that the administration hopes will persuade the other G-20 nations to adopt their own tough standards for banks in an effort to avoid a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis that pushed the global economy into a deep recession.

But in Friday's discussions, Obama made no headway in his call for more stimulus to keep the world economy growing. Instead, he ran into strong opposition from countries wanting to put deficit reduction first.

There was little expectation of economic breakthroughs on the deficit versus stimulus debate, or on the issue of financial overhaul by the time the three days of talks end on Sunday. The G-20 leaders were expected to push tough decisions on global banking regulations off to their next meeting in Seoul, South Korea, in November.

Divided on economic remedies, the leaders searched for common ground on other issues, such as providing greater support for maternal and infant health care in desperately poor countries - a key goal of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the summit host.

Harper announced late Friday that the G-8 leaders had pledged to contribute $5 billion over the next five years to the initiative. He said Canada's contribution was $1.1 billion and the White House announced the U.S. would contribute $1.35 billion over the next two years, subject to congressional approval. Japan announced a pledge of $500 million over five years.

A Japanese spokesman, Kazuo Kodama, said Friday that new Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan told his counterparts from Canada and Germany that North Korea's alleged torpedo attack is a "threat to the peace and stability of the region." Kan wants summit partners to issue a "clear message of condemnation" of North Korea, the spokesman said.

On Afghanistan, Cameron said he did not expect British troops - now numbering about 10,000 - to be in Afghanistan in five years' time. "We can't be there for another five years, having been there for nine years already," he told Britain's Sky News.

Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization - for which Obama voiced strong support on Thursday after a meeting in Washington with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev - could also come up during the weekend talks. Obama pledged to help Russia speed up its more than decade-long bid in hopes that Moscow could win acceptance as early as Sept. 30.

US to Karzai: New general won't alter Afghan plan

America's top military officer assured President Hamid Karzai that newly chosen NATO commander Gen. David Petraeus would pursue the policies of his ousted predecessor, whom the Afghan leader warmly praised for reducing civilian casualties.
On the battlefield, five international service members died on Saturday, NATO said. Two, including at least one American, were killed in two separate roadside bombings in southern Afghanistan.
Two others, including one American, were killed in roadside bomb attacks in the east. That brought to 89 the number of international troops killed so far in June - already the deadliest month of the nearly nine-year-old war. The figure includes at least 52 Americans.
Karzai's emphasis on preventing civilian deaths and injuries could make it difficult for NATO to relax rules of fighting that some U.S. troops say give the battlefield advantage to the Taliban. For now, however, no changes have been proposed, said a spokesman for visiting Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
During a 45-minute meeting with the Afghan leader, Mullen explained the events that surrounded President Barack Obama's decision to dismiss Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of both U.S. and NATO forces. McChrystal resigned after he and his aides were quoted in Rolling Stone magazine making disparaging remarks about top Obama administration officials guiding the civilian mission in the war.
Mullen, who spent just a half-day in Kabul, also met with U.S. Embassy officials and had a video teleconference with regional commanders in the field. To both sides, Mullen stressed the importance of a good "lash up" between often strained civilian and military efforts to beat back a resurgent Taliban and extend the Karzai government's control beyond Kabul.
"He stressed to President Karzai that absolutely nothing will change about our commitment to the struggle there, to the strategy," said Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for Mullen.
Mullen then flew to neighboring Pakistan, where he repeated the message to President Asif Ali Zardari and Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
Mullen's trip, which was scheduled before McChrystal's dismissal, took on a different tone after the change. Afghan leaders and some U.S. allies in the war worried that McChrystal's firing could disrupt the counterinsurgency strategy at a critical juncture in the war. But they were relieved when Obama chose Petraeus, McChrystal's boss who helped author the plan, to replace him.
Mullen stressed at the meeting that Petraeus had been involved in developing the strategy from the beginning and was attuned to the challenges in Afghanistan. The two talked briefly about the ongoing security operation in Kandahar, a hotbed of insurgent activity, Kirby said. Karzai lauded McChrystal, saying he was able to "reduce civilian casualties, create good cooperation between the Afghan and international forces and strengthen and develop the Afghan forces," according to a statement from the Afghan presidential palace.
A year ago, McChrystal imposed new restrictions on how NATO troops fight the enemy. The rules, credited for reducing the number of civilians killed and wounded by international troops, helped win McChrystal the trust of many Afghans.
Down in the ranks, however, the rules are widely perceived as too restrictive. Some troops believe the rules cost American lives and force them to give up the advantage of overwhelming firepower to a foe who shoots and melts back into the civilian population.
Kirby said for now, all the rules of engagement in place under McChrystal will remain in effect.
"Gen. Petraeus, as any new commander, has the right when he comes in to review those rules of engagement and may recommend changes to them as he sees fit," Kirby said. "But we have no indication right now that he has any intention of changing anything."