U.S. President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have been making optimistic comments about the prospects for agreement on climate change at the annual Group of Eight summit opening Wednesday. But the eight world leaders gathering in nearby Heiligendamm remain further apart on climate change than they like to acknowledge, the Associated Press reported. Bush and Merkel are due to hash out some of those differences over lunch Wednesday ahead of the official opening of the three-day summit at northern Germany's premier seaside resort. Then, Bush is to meet with the Japanese prime minister, and Merkel is to hold talks with the leaders of Italy, France and Russia before the summit begins. «There's a lot more in common, in a way, than there is disagreement,» said Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley. Germany, as summit host, is pushing specific targets for reduction of the carbon emissions believed to cause global warming. Merkel has made the issue the centerpiece of her G-8 leadership. Her proposal is for a «two-degree» target, under which global temperatures would be allowed to increase by no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) before being brought back down.
