Bush, U.N. Chief To Confer Today In Washington

By The Washington Post | July 17, 2007

WASHINGTON — President Bush and Secretary-General Ban, meeting for the second time, will confer today in Washington. The secretary-general, who took the U.N. helm at the start of the year, will also meet with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. These topics are likely for discussion between Messrs. Bush and Ban, according to American and U.N. officials:

• Climate change: Leaders of the Group of Eight major industrialized nations, including Mr. Bush, agreed to work through the United Nations to fight climate change. Foreign leaders frustrated with America's refusal to adopt the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 framework for reducing greenhouse gases, were cheered by Mr. Bush's proposal to create by the end of 2008 a plan for fighting global warming, with a goal of cutting emissions in half by 2050. They jeered Mr. Bush's reluctance to set hard targets for reductions.

• Darfur: The Bush administration is pushing for the United Nations to rapidly deploy a 23,000-member U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur. Many experts say Sudanese forces and Arab militias have carried out genocide against non-Arab villagers in Sudan's western region.

• Kosovo: The U.N. Security Council is trying to settle the future of Kosovo. Russia, a Serbian ally, has objected to recognizing Kosovo's independence, but America and others are pushing Russia not to veto a council resolution.

• Iran: America is pushing for a third set of sanctions against Iran over its pursuit of nuclear technology.