AUSTRALIA: Australia Prime Minister John Howard and U.S. President George W. Bush address Iraq and climate change

Australia PM John Howard reiterates support for the U.S. in Iraq as U.S. President George W. Bush tackles climate change ahead of APEC opening. Security was tight in Sydney on Wednesday (September 5), ahead of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, to be attended by 21 world leaders attending including U.S. President George W. Bush,China's Hu Jintao and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Bush arrived on Tuesday from iraq, where he had hinted at troop reductions. Early on Wednesday Bush met Australian Prime Minister John Howard to discuss issues including Iraq and climate change. In his opening remarks to the media, Howard reiterated Australia's support for the U.S.'s military involvement in Iraq, saying that Australian troops would remain there as long as necessary. "In our discussion I made it very clear to the president that our commitment to Iraq remains. Australian forces will remain at their present levels in Iraq, not based on any calendar, but based on conditions on the ground," Howard said. Bush thanked Howard for putting climate change at the top of the APEC agenda for the Sydney summit. "I do want to thank you very much for your leadership on climate change. I know some say 'since he's against Kyoto, he doesn't care about climate change' and that's urban legend. That's preposterous. As a matter of fact the United States last year reduced overall greenhouse gas emissions and grew our economy at the same time. In other words we showed what is possible when you deploy modern technologies. It enable you to achieve economic growth so your people can work and at the same time become less dependent on foreign sources of oil and at the same time be good stewards of the environment. So I appreciate you bringing up the nuclear power initiative," Bush said. Bush, who will meet Chinese President Hu Jintao, also said Beijing needed to play a part in defining global goals on climate change. "At the G8 I took the message that said to our partners there that if you really want to solve the climate change issue, let's get everybody to the table. Let's make sure that countries such as China and India are at the table as we discuss the way forward. Otherwise I suspect, if they feel like nations are going to cram down that solution down their throat and not give them a voice on how to achieve a common objective, they will walk and then you can't have effective global climate change," he said. More than any other country, China faces tough demands in forthcoming negotiations on how the world will cope with global warming and what will succeed the current Kyoto Protocol, which governs signatory states' greenhouse gas responsibilities. On Iraq, Bush said he saw signs of progression both the military and political fronts and again held out the possibility of a reduction in U.S. troop levels. But Bush said no final decisions had been made on the troop numbers and said he would not follow "artificial timetables" to assess whether it was time to make reductions. Bush saw achievements in bringing down the levels of violence and on reconciling the country's warring factions, a view much more upbeat than that of a U.S. Congressional report on Tuesday that found still-high levels of violence and little progress on the political front. "They're reconciling. They're reconciling after decades of tyranny. They're reconciling after having lived under a dictator who divided society in order to be able to sustain his power. At the national level there is reconciliation, but not nearly as fast as some would like. By the way, people who don't believe we should be in Iraq in the first place -- there is no political reconciliation that can take place to justify your opinion. If you don't think Iraq is important, if you don't think it matters what the society looks like there, then there's not enough amount of reconciliation that would cause people to say 'great, it's working'. If you believe like I believe that the security of the United States and the peace of the world depend upon democracy in the Middle East and in Iraq, then you can see progress and I'm seeing it. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Is there more work to be done? You bet there is," Bush said.

ITN Source | September 5, 2007

Tags:. .nuclear. .australian. .urban. .everybody. .decades