WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush would like next week's Group of Eight summit to focus on the world economy, not on the Iraq war, and hopes to work together with Israelis and Palestinians to achieve peace.
On the eve of his tour of Europe and the Middle East that starts Friday, Bush told reporters his goals were "peace", "prosperity" and "freedom".
The US president will come across some of the biggest critics of the US-led war on Iraq at the G8 summit in Evian, France from June 1-3.
France, Germany, Russia and Canada, opposed the Iraq war while Britain, Italy and Japan backed Bush.
"The press corp is going to observe the G8 as a confrontational meeting," Bush told a group of reporters from Europe and the Middle East ahead of his departure Friday.
But he added that it was "absolutely not" the case.
"It's an opportunity to talk with some who agreed on Iraq and some who did not about how we moved forward," adding that he wanted to discuss how "we can achieve grand goals: the goal of peace, goal of freedom, goal of prosperity."
He said he wanted the G8 summit to tackle the world economy, developing free trade, fighting terrorism, combatting AIDS and famine in Africa.
Bush's desire was echoed Thursday by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who called on the G8 powers in a letter to "set aside recent differences" over issues, including the Iraq war, and make a "concerted effort" help the world's poor nations.
Bush will be meeting French President Jacques Chirac for the first time since tensions with Paris erupted over the war.
He said that while Americans felt "frustration and disappointment" towards the French decision to oppose the Iraq war, there would be no sanctions against France, as was once feared, and that he was looking forward to working with France.
At the G8 summit, Bush told reporters he would emphasise the US policy of maintaining a strong dollar.
"Many of the grand goals that we have are very difficult to achieve if our respective economies are not strong," adding that he would "reiterate our strong dollar policy and I will listen to their plans and initiatives to reform their economies."
Bush insisted that "if the wealthier nations are not generating cash flow and the capacity to trade with other countries then it's going to be difficult to achieve our goals of freedom."
Bush will fly on Friday to Poland and on Saturday will visit the Nazi German concentration camp at Auschwitz "to see first hand one of the lessons of the past, that is there is evil in his world."
Bush said the the world needed to be united to confront such evils as terrorism "as we did...in the past."
He will go from Poland to commemorations in St Petersburg for the 300th anniversary of that Russian city, and from there on to Evian.
Bush will leave Evian early to attend a summit with Arab leaders in Egypt on June 3. The next day he will go to Aqaba in Jordan to meet the prime ministers of the Palestinian authority, Mahmud Abbas, and Israel, Ariel Sharon, and Jordan's King Abdullah, in a bid to advance a new US-inspired blueprint for Middle East peace.
"I look forward to work with the new Palestinian leadership as well as Ariel Sharon to make it clear to the world that as leaders we have the intention of working together to achieve peace, Bush told reporters.
Bush said he would emphasize to Abbas and Sharon that "I want them also to hear from me first hand that I expect them to be partners in the process."
"I will remind them that I have been the first president ever to stand up and say I am for two states living side by side in peace. I did so at the United Nations. I still have the vision that it is possible."
Bush said Isreal will "have to deal with the settlement issue. The settlement expansion is not in concert with the development of a state."
But he added that "there must be an absolute determined effort to fight off terror. I believe we can make progress, if not I wouldn't be going.
"Until people see the result of that vision, people will be skeptical. I understand the skepticism, the attitude of some, but I refuse to be stopped and my desire is to rally the world towards achieving positive results."
At a meeting Thursday between Abbas and Sharon in Jerusalemn, the Israeli leader agreed to hand over security control in Gaza and in West Bank towns to the Palestinians in a phased withdrawal of its troops, Sharon's office said.
Both sides described their two-and-a-half-hour discussion on the internationally-backed roadmap peace plan ahead of their three-way summit with Bush in Aqaba, Jordan, as "very positive."
Palestinian information minister Nabil Amr told AFP "the Israeli side promised to take some good steps to reduce the suffering of the Palestinian people."
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