Bush begins European trip, facing tense G8 summit

By Tabassum Zakaria

PRAGUE (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush began an eight-day trip to Europe on Monday with his popularity at home at a low point over the Iraq war and tensions abroad over global warming and missile defence.

The centrepiece will be the Group of Eight summit in Germany, where Bush will hold a closely watched meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid deteriorating U.S.-Russian ties.

Tensions will also run high on climate change. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had hoped to forge an agreement on the issue at the summit, a goal put in doubt when Bush proposed a new strategy on global warming last week.

"If you couple Bush's weak position at home with this unpopularity in much of Western Europe, Bush is probably not relishing this trip," said Charles Kupchan, director of Europe Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

"Particularly on the question of climate change, he will find himself isolated."

Bush made the Czech Republic his first stop. In picturesque Prague on Tuesday, he will address an international conference of human rights and democracy activists.

Ahead of the G8 summit, Europeans gave a cool reception to Bush's plan to bring together the world's biggest polluting countries by year-end to explore ways of limiting emissions and agree on a long-term goal by the end of 2008.

Some portrayed it as a defeat for Merkel, who wants the G8 to agree now on cutting emissions of greenhouse gases about 50 percent by 2050.