Russia to deliver new security proposal in Brussels July 22

(RUSSIA, SECURITY, COUNCIL, ROGOZIN, BETWEEN, AUGUST)

MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia`s proposals for a new National Security Strategy is to be presented at NATO headquarters in Brussels on July 22, Russia`s envoy to NATO said Monday.
"A high-level expert - one of the leaders of Russia`s Security Council - will arrive for that," Dmitry Rogozin said during a video link from Brussels organized by RIA Novosti.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree in May on the National Security Strategy up to 2020.
Rogozin also said that NATO had invited "the Russian envoy to take part on July 7 in a seminar devoted to NATO strategic development issues."
He also said the first meeting between a Russian representative and the newly-appointed NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who takes up the post on August 1, will be held August 11.
"I think at the August 11 meeting he is to outline prospects for his trip to Russia," Rogozin said.
Rogozin said discussions on a Russia`s proposal for a European Security Treaty could start in September during a Russia-NATO Council session.
Saturday`s informal foreign ministerial meeting of the Russia-NATO Council was the first high-level talks since last August`s five-day war between Russia and Georgia, after which contacts were frozen. Russia then recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which was attacked by Tbilisi in an attempt to bring it back under central control.
Relations between Russia and NATO have also been frayed in recent years over the military alliance`s eastern expansion. Ukraine and Georgia, both former Soviet republics, have applied to join, but their U.S.-backed bids were turned down due to pressure from Germany and France at a 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest.
 
Original article

UN mission to withdraw from Abkhazia by July 15

(MISSION, GEORGIA, ABKHAZIA, UNITED, STATES, BRITAIN)

UN mission withdraws from Georgia and Abkhazia
Post-war life in Abkhazia
SUKHUM, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - United Nations military observers will leave Abkhazia by July 15, 2009, a spokesman for the UN mission said on Monday.
The work of the mission, officially known as the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), was formally stopped on June 16 when its mandate expired with the UN Security Council unable to agree an extension.
Ten countries, including the United States, Britain and France, voted for the draft resolution to extend the mission, four countries - China, Vietnam, Libya and Uganda - abstained, and veto-wielding Russia voted against.
The draft, co-authored by Austria, Croatia, Germany, France, Turkey, Britain and the United States, would have extended the mission until June 30, 2009.
According to UN practice, the withdrawal of a mission takes up to two months.
Edmund Mulet, Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, is currently visiting Abkhazia to discuss the details of the withdrawal with local authorities.
He held a meeting at the republic`s Foreign Ministry and was received by Abkhaz Prime Minister Alexander Ankvab earlier on Monday.
The UN mission in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone was deployed in 1993 to oversee a ceasefire following a post-Soviet conflict that resulted in Abkhazia gaining de facto independence.
Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia in August 2008 after its five-day war with Georgia over the latter, which was attacked by Tbilisi in an attempt to bring it back under central control. Most residents of both Abkhazia and South Ossetia have held Russian citizenship for several years.
 
Original article

Russian, U.S. MPs discuss bilateral ties ahead of July summit

(MOSCOW, RUSSIA, BILATERAL, TRADE, MISSILE, AMENDMENT)

MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are in Russia on June 29-30 to discuss urgent issues of bilateral relations ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama`s visit to Moscow on July 6-8.
Opening an extended meeting of the members of foreign affairs committees to address bilateral trade, regional stability and U.S. missile defense plans in Europe, the speaker of the Russian lower house, Boris Gryzlov said: "Bilateral ties currently enjoy new possibilities and are being driven forward with increasing pace."
According to Leonid Slutsky, a deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on foreign affairs, the participants of the meeting will discuss plans for a U.S. missile shield in central Europe, and other issues related to NATO.
A discussion of the Jackson-Vanik amendment is also expected.
The Jackson-Vanik amendment was passed in 1974 and restricted trade with the Soviet Union over human rights violations. The amendment, which still applies to Russia, puts restrictions on Russian-American trade relations, but Russia`s accession to the World Trade Organization would require the amendment be lifted.
"We will also discuss topics that have emerged recently in the light of the move to `press the reset button` in bilateral relations and `re-launch` the START treaty," Slutsky said.
Russia and the U.S. have been involved in comprehensive talks over a new nuclear arms reduction deal to replace the START 1 treaty, which expires in December.
The START 1 treaty obliges Russia and the United States to reduce nuclear warheads to 6,000 and their delivery vehicles to 1,600 each. In 2002, a follow-up agreement on strategic offensive arms reduction was concluded in Moscow. The agreement, known as the Moscow Treaty, envisioned cuts to 1,700-2,200 warheads by December 2012.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Obama agreed to launch the discussions during their first meeting, in London in early April.
Russia, which proposed a new arms reduction agreement in 2005, expects Washington to agree on a deal that would restrict not only the numbers of nuclear warheads, but also place limits on all existing kinds of delivery vehicles.
Medvedev has also said that any strategic arms cuts would only be possible if the United States alleviated Russia`s concerns over Washington`s plans for a missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland.
The U.S. military has recently reiterated its commitment to missile defense, citing a growing threat from North Korea and Iran, but suggested plans for a European site may change.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has suggested that Russian facilities could be part of the missile defense system, but Moscow has rejected this idea, saying there could be no partnership "in building facilities that are essentially designed to counter Russia`s strategic deterrence forces."
 
Original article

Russia ready for more NATO cargo transits to Afghanistan

(AFGHANISTAN, RUSSIA, TRANSIT, MILITARY, GERMANY, FRANCE)

Facing the Taliban in Afghanistan
UN Secretary General welcomes Russia`s role in restoration of Afghanistan
CORFU (Greece), June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is ready to extend the transit of military cargoes through Russia to other key member nations of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, a deputy foreign minister has said.
Russia already has bilateral transit deals with Germany, France and Spain, and Moscow also signed an agreement with NATO in 2008 on rail transits of non-lethal supplies to Afghanistan.
"As for military transits, we have signed agreements with Germany, France and Spain. We are also considering a request from Italy," Alexander Grushko told a news conference late on Sunday after an informal meeting of the Russia-NATO Council.
Due to worsening security on the main land route from Pakistan, NATO is seeking alternative routes to supply the U.S.-dominated ISAF in Afghanistan.
There are 62,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, and U.S. President Barrack Obama has pledged to deploy another 17,000 U.S. military personnel to the war-ravaged country.
The informal foreign ministerial meeting of the Council on Saturday was the first high-level talks since last August`s five-day war between Russia and Georgia, after which contacts were frozen. Russia then recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which was attacked by Tbilisi in an attempt to bring it back under central control.
Relations between Russia and NATO have also been frayed in recent years over the military alliance`s eastern expansion. Ukraine and Georgia, both former Soviet republics, have applied to join, but their U.S.-backed bids were turned down due to pressure from Germany and France at a 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest.
NATO and Russia have recently taken measures to step up cooperation on international security, including anti-piracy efforts in the Gulf of Aden.
 
Original article

Obama focuses on Senate after first climate win

(OBAMA, WOULD, ENERGY, SENATE, CLIMATE, US, CHANGE)

By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, fresh from his first legislative victory on climate policy, expressed confidence on Monday that new greenhouse gas emission limits would become law with help from the U.S. Senate.
Obama also announced new measures on efficiency standards for lighting used in homes and businesses to take effect in 2012.
The House of Representatives passed a climate change bill on Friday that would require large companies, including utilities and manufacturers, to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases associated with global warming by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, from 2005 levels.
The Democratic president and many environmentalists declared the passage a historic step forward for U.S. energy policy, while Republicans and other opponents called it a massive tax that would not succeed in fighting climate change.
The bill gives Obama a stronger case to assert U.S. leadership on global warming at a meeting of the world`s major emitters next week on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Italy.
But the president`s victory may be short lived. The U.S. Senate must now shape its version of the same bill, and the chances of passage there are murky.
Obama and his top environmental aide, Carol Browner, expressed confidence that success would come in the Senate as well.
"In the months to come, the Senate will take up its version of the energy bill, and I am confident that they too will choose to move this country forward," Obama told reporters.
Browner declined to speculate on the timing of a Senate vote but referred to statements by Majority Leader Harry Reid that work would be done on the bill this autumn.
"I am confident that ... comprehensive energy legislation will pass the Senate," she said.
U.N. talks on a new global pact to fight climate change take place in December in Copenhagen, and analysts say having a U.S. law passed by then would boost chances of reaching an international agreement.
Obama has said he wants the United States to lead the world in fighting climate change.
EFFICIENCY STANDARDS
The new efficiency standards announced by the president apply to fluorescent and incandescent lamps, which represent 37 and 7 percent of lighting energy use, respectively, the White House said. They would save up to 594 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions through 2042, the White House said.
Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu also announced they were accelerating a $346 million investment of stimulus funds to be used in making new and existing homes as well as commercial buildings more energy efficient.  Continued...
Original article

Related articles:
House passes landmark climate change bill

Obama voices support for Colombia trade deal

(TRADE, COLOMBIA, OBAMA, US, URIBE, CONGRESS, PRESIDENT)

By Doug Palmer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama expressed hope that Congress would eventually approve a long-delayed free trade agreement with Colombia, but said that country needed to make more progress on human rights first.
"There remains work to do. But I`m confident that ultimately we can strike a deal that is good for the people and good for the people of the United States," Obama told reporters after a meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
In remarks in the White House Oval Office, Obama said he did not have "a strict timetable" for submitting the trade deal to Congress because he already had a busy legislative agenda this year and needed to consult with lawmakers first.
But he said Colombia could improve chances for the pact by making further progress on a number of human rights concerns that have blocked approval of the pact since it was signed by officials in the administration of former President George W. Bush in November 2006.
"President Uribe has assured me that he is interested in resolving those issues, and as I said great progress has been made. I trust that we can make more progress and I think that will help shape the overall environment in which this issue is being debated in Congress," Obama said.
Uribe said approval of the pact would send an important U.S. "signal of confidence" in Colombia, adding that his government was open to any U.S. advice on how it could improve its human rights record.
It was Obama`s second meeting with Uribe, a conservative politician who enjoyed a close relationship with Bush and whose country has received more than $6 billion in U.S. military and other aid under the Plan Colombia program since 1999.
Obama opposed the free trade agreement during last year`s presidential election campaign on the grounds that Colombia had not done enough to reduce killings of trade unionists and prosecute those responsible for the crimes.
The AFL-CIO labor federation, the United States` largest labor group, remains strongly opposed to the free trade agreement, as do many Democratic members of Congress.
When Bush tried to force a vote on the agreement in April 2007, he lost a showdown with House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who instead pushed through a legislative rule change to indefinitely delay action on the pact.
"I think the burden is not simply on Colombia," Obama noted on Monday. "I think Colombia has done a lot of excellent work. It is a matter of getting both countries to a place where their legislatures feel confident that it will be ultimately to the economic benefits of these countries."
Obama, after meeting Uribe for the first time at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad in April, asked U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to work with Colombia and Congress on a plan to enact the pact.
Uribe also met on Monday with U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and World Bank Robert Zoellick. Zoellick launched the U.S. free trade talks with Colombia in May 2004, when he was Bush`s trade representative.
(Reporting by Doug Palmer; editing by Todd Eastham)
Original article

Obama, Merkel show united front at U.S. meeting

By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel displayed a united front on Friday over Iran, climate and regulation, smoothing over -- at least in public -- differences that dogged their relationship.
Obama, who called Merkel a friend he could trust, said the two spoke with one voice in condemning the crackdown on demonstrators in Iran after its disputed election.
Merkel, who has criticized Obama`s economic stimulus plan, praised U.S. efforts to fight global warming and said a bill in the U.S. Congress would advance international talks on climate change later this year.
"The chancellor and I discussed the tragic situation in Iran," Obama said at the opening of a joint news conference.
"Today we speak with one voice. The rights of the Iranian people to assemble, to speak freely, to have their voices heard -- those are universal aspirations."
The two leaders also discussed accelerating the Middle East peace process, fighting extremism in Afghanistan, and creating a "more substantive" relationship with Russia, Obama said.
Merkel and Obama, who will attend the Group of Eight summit of wealthy nations in Italy next month, have clashed over the best way to lift the globe out of recession.
Democrat Obama presided over a $787 billion U.S. economic stimulus package shortly after taking office in January, while Merkel, a conservative, has spoken against massive spending to fix the world`s economic ills.
"I underscored our commitment to strengthening financial regulations, and I welcome Chancellor Merkel`s commitment to reform," Obama said in a nod to their respective priorities.
On climate change, Merkel was expected to press Obama to back a European Union goal of limiting increases in global average temperatures to no more than 2 degrees Celsius.
But the chancellor, whose visit coincided with a vote in the House of Representatives on a bill capping carbon emissions, went out of her way to praise the U.S. legislation, which Obama supports, and its potential to boost U.N. negotiations in Denmark in December.
"It should not be underestimated what sort of opportunity this brings to us to come to a good, a sustainable result during the Copenhagen conference," she said.
BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP
Other areas of disagreement came up. Merkel`s government has resisted U.S. requests that it accept inmates from the Guantanamo prison that Obama plans to close by early 2010.
Obama said the two sides were discussing the issue.  Continued...
Original article

Russia says to ink U.S. military deal at summit

By Conor Sweeney
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and the United States will sign deals on military cooperation when U.S. President Barack Obama visits Moscow next month, Russia`s top general said on Friday.
"We have outlined the main issues of military cooperation for 2009 and beyond," the head of the Russian general staff, General Nikolai Makarov, said after a 90-minute meeting in Moscow with his U.S. counterpart, Admiral Michael Mullen.
"Our intention is that those documents should be signed when U.S. President Barack Obama arrives here in Moscow in July," Makarov said.
Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, made no mention of any military agreements after the talks but said he was looking forward to the outcome of Obama`s visit to Russia in early July.
The military top brass said they discussed a wide range of common concerns, ranging from North Korea`s nuclear test to Iran and Afghanistan. They gave no further details about the talks or about the military agreements.
Mullen, on his first visit to Moscow, said the meeting was frank and open. The military talks follow renewed efforts by the two countries to reset relations which have become strained by events such as last year`s Georgia war and NATO`s expansion eastwards.
"I`m very encouraged by our meetings and our mutual commitment to address these issues and strengthen our military-to-military cooperation," said Mullen.
"We have many common challenges ... whether in Afghanistan or the challenges in missile defense, or in Iran or particularly for security in Europe," he added.
Obama travels to Moscow from July 6-8 for a summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev where the agenda will include further cuts to aging nuclear arsenals and U.S. plans to install an anti-missile defense system in Europe.
"I very much look forward to the outcome of the very important summit between Presidents Obama and Medvedev in two weeks," said Mullen.
"I can`t emphasize enough my belief that we need to work on these very hard challenges to improve security not just in Europe, but in the world," said Mullen.
(Reporting by Conor Sweeney; Editing by Richard Williams)
Original article

Obama, Germany`s Merkel to air differences at meeting

By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will debate how to fix the global economy and fight climate change on Friday in a White House meeting that is likely to highlight a range of differences between the two leaders.
Unrest in Iran after the Islamic Republic`s disputed presidential poll, the war in Afghanistan and a U.S. request that Germany take prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are also issues likely to be on the agenda.
Merkel and Obama, who will both attend the Group of Eight summit of wealthy nations in Italy next month, have clashed about the best way to lift the globe out of recession, but analysts say relations between the two leaders are solid.
"They`re going to continue conversations as we head into the G8 about the importance of continuing to make progress and getting our world economy back on track," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, noting Obama and Merkel had recently met in Germany.
"Obviously, North Korea and Iran will be discussed, as they were in Germany. And I think -- I assume issues such as Guantanamo Bay and others will be on the docket," he said.
Obama presided over a $787 billion U.S. economic stimulus package shortly after taking office earlier this year, while Merkel has spoken against massive spending to fix the world`s economic ills.
A senior German official said the chancellor wanted to discuss an "exit strategy" for short-term economic fixes such as stimulus spending.
"It`s an issue for the future but one we feel needs to be discussed now," the official said.
Obama and Merkel disagree on international security topics as well. Berlin has shunned U.S. calls that it commit more troops to the war in Afghanistan, which is deeply unpopular in Germany.
Merkel`s government has also resisted U.S. requests that it accept inmates from the Guantanamo prison that Obama plans to close by early 2010.
DISAGREEMENTS, ELECTION
Merkel, who is running in Germany`s September federal election for a second term, enjoyed a warm relationship with former U.S. President George W. Bush, urging him, with some success, to inch toward international consensus on the need to fight climate change.
"Merkel was dealing with a weakened Bush and the Germans felt they could influence him," said John Kornblum, the U.S. ambassador to Germany under President Bill Clinton, who lives in Berlin. "They do not have the same feeling with Obama."
But another analyst said Obama and Merkel admire each other and have a respectful relationship, which the German chancellor is eager to illustrate -- even while disagreeing with U.S. policies -- during her first visit to the Obama White House.
"Obama is the most popular politician in Germany," said Jeremy Shapiro, a foreign policy fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.  Continued...
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Embattled South Carolina Governor Sanford to repay trip expenses

By Matthew Bigg
ATLANTA (Reuters) - South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, facing pressure to resign over an extramarital affair, said on Thursday he would repay state funds he used for an official trip to Argentina during which he met his mistress.
Sanford`s move came as questions mounted whether he had used public funds to pursue a yearlong affair with the woman.
His admission of marital infidelity during a tearful news conference on Wednesday likely ended chances he might be a Republican contender for the U.S. presidency in 2012.
The governor said he participated in a U.S. Commerce Department trade mission a year ago to Brazil and Argentina.
"While the purpose of this trip was an entirely professional and appropriate business development trip, I made a mistake while I was there in meeting with the woman who I was unfaithful to my wife with," Sanford said in a statement.
"That has raised some very legitimate concerns and questions, and as such, I am going to reimburse the state for the full cost of the Argentina leg of this trip," he said.
He was due to hold a state Cabinet meeting on Friday, his office said.
Sanford announced on Wednesday his resignation as chairman of the Republican Governors` Association, and attention has since shifted to whether he will resign as governor. His second term ends in January 2011.
The Washington Post, quoting a close adviser, reported on Thursday that Sanford was not considering resigning.
Attention has also focused on whether Sanford abdicated responsibility by disappearing from the state for six days starting last Thursday without telling aides where he was going. He told them initially he was going hiking on the Appalachian Trail in the Eastern United States.
But at his news conference on Wednesday after returning by plane from Buenos Aires, he said he "created a fiction" for aides and was actually visiting his lover in Argentina over the Father`s Day weekend.
`CLOSE TO GAME OVER`
South Carolina Republican Party official Glenn McCall said Sanford should resign because his previous statements about the importance of family values and his criticism of former President Bill Clinton`s marital infidelity amounted to hypocrisy.
South Carolina Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, also a Republican, said Sanford`s prospects appeared grim.
"It is close to game over. ... If anyone can prove he did this (met his lover) with taxpayer money, the deal is off. I am concerned that is coming," said Peeler.  Continued...
Original article

U.S. senators closer to $1 trillion healthcare bill

By Donna Smith
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. senators on Thursday moved closer to agreement on a $1 trillion U.S. healthcare overhaul that would extend medical coverage to nearly everyone and without adding to huge budget deficits.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and other panel members said that reducing the cost was a significant step toward getting a final package that could gain at least some Republican support.
Baucus said panel members have narrowed talks to options that bring the price tag to about $1 trillion over 10 years, down from an earlier estimate of $1.6 trillion.
"We have options that would enable us to write a $1 trillion bill, fully paid for," Baucus told reporters after a closed-door meeting with panel members.
"We`re getting a lot closer to an agreement," Baucus said.
Later the group of Senate Finance Republican and Democratic negotiators issued a statement affirming their commitment to reach bipartisan agreement on a bill "that will lower costs and ensure quality, affordable care for every American."
But cracks have emerged in the diverse coalition pushing for an overhaul of a healthcare system that chews up 16 percent of the gross domestic product annually but trails many developed countries on measures like infant mortality and longevity.
Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, a major player in the negotiations, said it was too early to say how many Republicans would back the overhaul.
Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, also a key negotiator, has strongly opposed Democratic demands that a new government plan be created to compete with private insurance companies to cover the uninsured.
Insurers and doctors share Republican concerns that a public insurance program would drive insurance companies out of business.
"I`m certainly keeping an open mind but I am not very enthusiastic about anything that smacks of a government plan," Hatch told reporters.
`VERY SUBSTANTIAL PROGRESS`
President Barack Obama has made a healthcare plan that reins in costs and covers most of the 47 million uninsured Americans one of his top legislative priorities. He has turned up the pressure on Congress to pass healthcare reform this year and has indicated a willingness to compromise.
Democratic Senator Kent Conrad said lawmakers would pick through the menu of options to develop a package that can earn enough votes to pass the committee and the Senate.
"Very substantial progress has been made over the last 24 hours," Conrad told reporters.  Continued...
Original article

Obama pledges push this year for immigration reform

By Doug Palmer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama tapped a top Cabinet official on Thursday to work with Congress to speed immigration reform as senators warned another failed effort could doom chances for a generation.
"Despite our inability to get this passed over the last several years, the American people still want to see a solution," Obama told reporters after meeting with Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
Obama said he had asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to meet regularly with lawmakers to systematically work through a number of controversial issues, such as how to handle the 12 million illegal immigrants already in the United States and how to prevent future illegal immigration.
"It`s going to require some heavy lifting. It`s going to require a victory of practicality and common sense and good policymaking over short-term politics," Obama said.
Congress failed in 2006 and 2007 to pass immigration reform despite a push by former Republican President George W. Bush.
Earlier this year, Vice President Joe Biden said the U.S. economic slump and soaring unemployment made it a bad time to take on the issue, which stirs up strong emotions on both sides of the immigration debate.
But Obama, who has been criticized for not following through on a campaign pledge to tackle the issue this year, said the White House and Democratic-controlled Congress need to start pushing now to pass legislation and "not put it off for a year, two years, three years, five years from now."
Senator John McCain, the Republican who lost to Obama in last year`s presidential election, told reporters the reforms also must include a temporary worker program for agricultural and high-tech industries that rely on non-U.S. citizen labor.
"I can`t support any proposal that doesn`t have a legal temporary worker program and I would expect the president of the United States to put his influence on the unions in order to change their position," McCain said.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer told reporters after the White House meeting that Obama had set a goal of passing legislation by the end of this year or early next year.
If Congress cannot meet that deadline, "we may not get to do it for a generation," Schumer said.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, also said he saw only "one more chance" to pass a bill because of the political heat that immigration reform stirs up.
"If we can`t get it done this time around, no politician is going to take this up in a generation. That would be a shame for this country," Graham said.
(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
Original article

U.S. calls for new approach in Doha trade talks

By Jonathan Lynn
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States called on Thursday for a new approach to concluding the long-running Doha round to free up world trade. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Washington wanted to negotiate directly with key trading partners in the World Trade Organization talks as the traditional multilateral approach was not working. Major emerging countries said they would reject calls for bilateral concessions.
"We believe we have to start with an honest assessment that continuing on the same path that we have engaged in for the last three rounds will most likely yield the same result and that would be a failure to come to a successful conclusion," Kirk told a news conference.
From the current incomplete package of deals it was clear what the United States would give up but hard to see exactly what it would gain, he said, given the many exceptions to an overall agreement for various countries, making the deal opaque.
"We think getting more clarity around that may be the key to helping us find a solution to a way forward," Kirk said after a meeting of ministers at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Kirk has also called on big emerging countries to open their markets further to foreign goods to help secure a deal in the Doha talks, launched in late 2001 to help poor countries prosper through trade.
But the trade ministers from India, Brazil and South Africa, meeting on the sidelines of the OECD, rejected that call and said any renewed dialogue must be part of a "transparent and inclusive multilateral process."
"At this final stage of negotiations, in the midst of the worst economic environment since the Great Depression of the 1930s, it would be unreasonable and unrealistic to assume that further unilateral concessions from developing countries will be forthcoming, especially in the context of the current economic crisis," the three ministers said in a statement.
Developing countries fear they could be strongarmed into an unbalanced deal through a one-on-one approach.
The Doha talks have been effectively on ice since a meeting of ministers in July failed to clinch an outline deal.
A number of positive comments in recent weeks, not least from Kirk and his new Indian counterpart Anand Sharma, have kindled hopes the talks could resume shortly.
But the differences between rich and emerging countries over process and substance underline how difficult it will be to conclude the negotiations, which WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy says are 80 percent complete.
Developing countries say they are under pressure to open up while rich countries have hedged their sensitive farm sectors around with waivers and get-outs to any deal, and EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel ruled out any new concessions.
"We have tried our very best and we don`t move," Fischer Boel told reporters in Paris after meeting the newly appointed French farm minister, Bruno Le Maire, who echoed her words.
WTO chief Lamy told the OECD meeting that completing Doha "through a multilateral negotiating process coupled with bilateral discreet contacts among players" was all the more important because trade was expected to contract by 10 percent this year -- 14 percent in developed countries and 7 percent in developing countries.
The economic crisis underlying this contraction was also giving rise to protectionist pressures, he said.  Continued...
Original article

U.S. pushes for Israeli-Palestinian discussions

By Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it would make a new push for Israeli-Palestinian talks and U.S. envoy George Mitchell, en route to the region, hoped to lay the groundwork.
"The president has told me to exert all efforts to create the circumstance when the parties can begin immediate discussions," Mitchell told reporters at a Palestinian donors' conference in Oslo, referring to renewed negotiations that President Barack Obama has pledged to pursue.
In the Gaza Strip, militants opposed to a dialogue tried to blast open Israel's border fence.
Israeli forces killed three Palestinian militants who had planned to breach the border fence with the Hamas-run territory by detonating explosives they had tied to five horses, a military spokesman said.
Middle East envoy Tony Blair said after the Oslo meeting Obama's push for a peace deal should be embraced by Arab states.
"For the Arab countries in particular we need their support... We need their support for the Palestinian Authority, their support for the peace process, their support in coming to a new ... understanding about how we can establish peace in the Middle East.
"President Obama needs something to come back to him, he's reaching out but he needs people to reach back and I think the next few months is all about seeing whether we can create the circumstances where that happens," he told Reuters.
POLICY SPEECH
Mitchell was to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday.
Netanyahu is at odds with Obama over the president's demand to halt Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and has not endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state, a cornerstone of U.S. Middle East policy.
The Israeli leader is to make a major policy speech on Sunday in which a senior official said Netanyahu would "articulate his vision on how to move forward in the peace process with the Palestinians and with the larger Arab world."
Netanyahu has said he is ready to meet Abbas and begin talks on economic, security and political issues, which he has not specified.
Palestinians have rejected his proposed shift of focus away from territorial issues, whose complexity, Netanyahu has said, has frustrated U.S.-backed attempts to reach a final peace deal.
Abbas said renewed talks would be pointless unless Netanyahu first stopped settlement activity and endorsed Palestinian statehood as part of a 2003 peace "road map" that also calls on the Palestinian Authority to crack down on militants.
"If Israel rejects this and rejects the two-state solution, then, what shall we negotiate?" Abbas asked during a visit to a school in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Democrats stoke grassroots healthcare campaign

By Carey Gillam
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - From a living room in Kansas to a bagel shop in New York to an Alabama church, Democrats have started mobilizing support for President Barack Obama's healthcare reform plans.
Suburban housewives and social workers mixed with Baptist ministers, college students, retirees and many others at grassroots gatherings over the weekend. Spurred by the Democratic National Committee's burgeoning political machine dubbed "Organizing for America," thousands of such meetings had been planned for Friday through Monday.
Those attending the scripted two-hour events viewed a videotaped message from Obama, shared personal stories and made local battle plans to counter the expected stiff opposition.
"It's going to be a vicious fight," said 76-year-old Hank Putsch who attended an organizing meeting on Saturday at a Kansas City restaurant. "The insurance companies and healthcare companies are gearing up to oppose this. We've got to get our voices heard."
Obama has declared this summer "make-or-break" time for healthcare reform and has called on Congress to pass comprehensive legislation by the end of the year, saying America can no longer afford the costs of a system dominated by profit-driven insurance and healthcare companies which leaves 46 million people uninsured.
Though he is leaving the details to Congress, Obama has said reform must ensure a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans, a reduction in basic costs, and assurance that no one is denied insurance.
"This is why we elected him," said Sarah Starnes, a hospital social worker who has volunteered to help campaign for the Obama plan in Missouri. "It used to be that we'd elect a president and then the lobbyists would determine what happened. This time it is going to be us who determine what happens."
The Democrats' strategy calls for tapping an estimated 2 million volunteers and a database of more than 10 million e-mail addresses built during Obama's election campaign.
SCRIPTED TALKING POINTS
Supporters are receiving talking points and scripted messages to lobby friends and family. A signature drive is underway to petition members of Congress and online fund-raising is earmarked for TV and radio advertisements.
Supporters hope to demonstrate their strength in a "National Health Care Day of Service" later this month.
"All it takes is one big medical crisis to ruin a family," said Melissa Carlson, who with her husband Bob, hosted an organizing effort on Saturday in their Overland Park, Kansas home. "One person can't make a difference but if we all do something eventually it adds up."
White House economic advisers last week said U.S. healthcare spending accounts for about 18 percent of the country's economic output, but could reach 34 percent by 2040 and the uninsured population could climb to 72 million.
Even those with insurance are finding it harder to pay their portion of medical bills while job losses are making healthcare costs more burdensome.
At one meeting held Saturday in a suburban Dallas, Texas, home, 59-year-old Grace Allison said she could not pay for a recent emergency room visit after losing her health insurance along with her job as a university administrator. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Netanyahu wants "maximum understanding" with U.S

By Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would strive for "maximum understanding" with Washington on peace issues but gave no sign he intends to bow to its demand to halt settlement expansion.
Under pressure from U.S. President Barack Obama over settlements in the occupied West Bank and Palestinian statehood, which Netanyahu has not endorsed, the Israeli leader said he would set out his policies in a major speech later this month.
"I want to make clear, it is our intention to achieve peace with the Palestinians and with the countries of the Arab world while attempting to reach maximum understanding with the United States and our friends in the world," Netanyahu said.
"I aspire to a stable peace based on the solid foundations of the security of the state of Israel and its citizens," he told his right-wing cabinet at its weekly meeting.
By mentioning security, Netanyahu again highlighted an issue he has called paramount to Israel's approach to peace with the Palestinians, whom he has said should have self-government but only limited powers of sovereignty.
In a speech on Thursday to Muslims in which he reaffirmed a U.S. commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state, Obama said Washington "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements."
Despite the rare rift with the United States, Israel's main ally, Israeli officials said Netanyahu has no intention of risking the collapse of his coalition by ceasing all settlement activity in the West Bank.
Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, urged Netanyahu to announce his acceptance of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a settlement freeze and "a return to serious negotiations."
Half a million Jews live in settlement blocks built in the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem, areas where, with the Gaza Strip, Palestinians want to establish a state.
U.S. ENVOY
Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, is to begin a visit to Israel and the West Bank on Monday. Western and Israeli officials said the White House was formulating a blueprint for a renewed peace process that could be presented early next month.
Without giving a date, Netanyahu said "Next week, I will make a major diplomatic speech in which I will present to the citizens of Israel our principles for achieving peace and security."
Israel Radio said he would deliver the address on June 14. A Netanyahu spokesman said he could not confirm the date.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, head of the center-left Labour Party in Netanyahu's government, held out the possibility of a softening in Israel's position on Palestinian statehood in return for an easing of U.S. pressure over settlements.
Referring to a 2003, U.S.-endorsed peace plan, Barak told reporters the government should declare it is "committed to all previous agreements signed by previous governments, including the 'road map', whose goal is two states for two peoples." Continued...
Source: Reuters