How G-8 may unify around Iraq

High diplomacy will mix with Spanish moss, grits, and Southern hospitality this week when the world's eight economic and political powerhouses meet in Sea Island, Ga., to discuss everything from democracy in the Middle East to the price of a liter of gasoline in the south of France.

But probably the biggest topic will be Iraq. The US and its European allies are very close to agreeing on a UN resolution that would both allow US forces to remain in the country and give the interim Iraqi government some authority over major military actions. Such a resolution, many hope, will encourage more countries to take another key step: providing financial aid to Iraq - perhaps starting at this summit. If the US and Europe, particularly France, move closer toward resolving their differences at Sea Island, it would help heal the wounds created by the war last year.

"This is the most critical summit in a long time," says Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International. "This is an opportunity to heal some old wounds and get more of a consensus on Iraq assistance."

The progress on the United Nations resolution has come so quickly, in fact, that it might change the agenda for the summit. Last week in an advance Group of Eight briefing for the press, Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, didn't even mention Iraq. The summit, the White House said, would have three main themes: security, freedom, and prosperity.

Now with the resolution moving forward, says Mr. Hormats, who is a former member of the National Security Council, the United States will try to get everyone to agree on more foreign assistance and debt restructuring for Iraq.

Compared with last year, it could practically be a love fest. At the G-8 in Évian, France, last year, personal contact between President Bush, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, and French President Jacques Chirac was minimal in the wake of the Iraq invasion. "The Évian summit was successful in bringing all the leaders back on to speaking terms, but the wounds over Iraq were too fresh to permit any substantive joint action," writes Nicholas Bayne, a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science on the website G8 Online 2004.

If progress is now made on Iraq, it might also give the leaders more interest in Mr. Bush's ideas for democratic change and economic development in the "broader Middle East and North Africa." Dr. Rice, in her briefing last week, talked about a lunch to be held at the summit with six Muslim nations: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Turkey, and Yemen. "This is an opportunity for the G-8 to discuss how it can support freedom and political, economic, and social progress in the Middle East," she said.

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