‘G8 heading towards climate deal’

The G-8 industrialised states are on course to reach a deal on global warming at their summit next week, French President Jacques Chirac sai...

The G-8 industrialised states are on course to reach a deal on global warming at their summit next week, French President Jacques Chirac said on Sunday.

“We have had some difficult discussions and it looks like we are heading towards an agreement,” Chirac said at a joint news briefing with Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. France had needed to “take a very firm position” so that”this agreement could be reached,” Chirac said. Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair, the summit’s host, said last week he had been having tough negotiations with the United States, the world’s biggest polluter.

Washington has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on carbon dioxide emissions and the greenhouse effect. The summit, in Gleneagles, Scotland, runs from July 6-8.

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Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has called for efforts to reduce oil prices but said the world’s biggest exporter Saudi Arabia was doing what it could to rein in prices.

Blair also signalled oil prices were likely to be on the agenda of the G8 leaders meeting in Scotland next week because of concerns about their impact on the world economy.

‘‘Obviously we will discuss the world economy and oil prices are a significant and important part of that,’’ Blair said during a brief visit to Saudi Arabia.

After oil hit a record of $60.95 a barrel this week, Canada said the G8 will broach the risks of high fuel costs hurting US economic growth or smothering the already sluggish economies of much of Europe and Japan.