Bush heads to Europe for G8

By Tabassum Zakaria

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush flew 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 defense.

Built around the Group of Eight summit in Germany where his host, Chancellor Angela Merkel, had hoped to forge an agreement on climate change, Bush's trip includes stops in Eastern Europe to bolster developing democracies.

With many Americans clamouring for an end to the Iraq war, the Republican president focused on a softer agenda before the meeting.

Laying out his goals last week, Bush asked Congress to double funds for combating AIDS, primarily in Africa, to $30 billion (15.07 billion pounds) over five years and tried to dispel criticism by proposing a new global warming strategy. He also slapped sanctions on Sudan for what he called the genocide in Darfur.

"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."

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 a need for cutting emissions of greenhouse gases about 50 percent by 2050.