Meanwhile, the German government is launching one of its largest security operations ever ahead of the start of the G8 meeting on Wednesday. Germany is deploying 16,000 police officers and 1,100 soldiers to the small resort town of Heiligendamm, the site of the three-day summit. Germany has also put up a seven-mile wall topped with barbed wire to surround the resort. Global warming is expected to be a key issue at the G8 summit. President Bush’s new proposal for a climate change strategy that rejects setting mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions has been widely criticized.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper: “We believe that we should have targets. We agree on what those long-term targets should be. I think our long-term targets are really close. And we also agree that we should be part of United Nations process. United Nations can have several different tracks, but ultimately we have to have everybody, all major emitters, committed to being included and being part of an eventual regime that has targets.”

Greenpeace has urged the G8 nations to act swiftly against climate change.

Joerg Feddern, Greenpeace: “The first thing is that the G8 countries give a worldwide sign that they said, yes, binding target 2020 is 30 percent CO2 emissions less than (compared) to 1990. This is the first thing. The second thing is that Mrs. Merkel said, here in Germany, we wanted a clear, positive sign for the whole world: 40 percent CO2 reduction until 2020. If this is the result of this G8 summit, then it is successful. If not, it will fail.”