EU-Russia Summit Focuses on Global Warming

The EU is today expected to press Russia to do more about global warming, at a summit in London attended by Vladimir Putin and Tony Blair.

Mr Putin, the Russian president, is in London for a regular EU-Russia summit, hosted by the prime minister, Tony Blair.

Trade, energy and the fight against terrorism are expected to top the agenda for the summit, which happens every six months and is aimed at improving the EU's relationship with Russia.

Mr Blair, who is chairing the talks because the UK currently holds the revolving EU presidency, will also hold bilateral talks with Mr Putin tomorrow and is expected to push for greater efforts from Russia on tackling global warming.

Today's talks at Lancaster House in central London started at around 10am and the two leaders are expected to appear at a press conference together shortly after 2pm.

Tomorrow Mr Blair is expected to urge Mr Putin to continue the UK's focus on climate change when Russia takes over the presidency of the G8 group of industrialised nations from the UK in January.

This summer's G8 summit at Gleneagles resulted in an agreement to "act with resolve and urgency" on global warming. However, environmentalists have since expressed concern at the lack of progress on a global accord to limit greenhouse gas emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Russia says that energy will be a central theme of its year-long presidency of the G8, and Mr Blair wants to ensure that Moscow's attention is focused not only on the security and distribution of supplies but on the environmental impact of burning oil and gas.

Mr Blair also raised the issue of climate change during recent summits with India and China, the Foreign Office said.

Both Moscow and Brussels are keen to increase trade and business links, as well as improving cooperation on counter-terrorism, drug-trafficking and organised crime.

Today's meetings will involve discussions on the so-called "four common spaces" where the EU and Russia have shared interests: the economy; freedom and justice; external security; and research and education.

Some tension is expected on the issue of migration, with the EU facing demands from Moscow for the easing of visa conditions for its citizens.

EU members have long said that they will only make it easier for Russians to visit the bloc in return for an agreement from Moscow to take back illegal immigrants.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International is urging the EU leaders to raise concerns over human rights in the war-torn Caucasian republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia.

The human rights group last week issued a report claiming Russian authorities were implicated in "torture, abduction and secret detention of civilians".

Amnesty said Moscow was using the "war on terror" as a cloak for systematic human rights abuses.

Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, has called on the EU to use today's summit to exert pressure on Russia to support an international inquiry into the killing of hundreds of civilians in its neighbour Uzbekistan, where security forces opened fire on protesters in May.

During his visit to London, Mr Putin is expected to express displeasure over Britain's granting of asylum to Chechen rebel representative Akhmed Zakayev and the media tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who fled Russia to avoid an investigation.

Representing the EU today are Mr Blair and the foreign secretary, Jack Straw; the European commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso; the EU trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson; and the EU foreign policy representative, Javier Solana. Mr Putin is joined at the summit by the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov.