Washington Post
Wednesday, June 4, 2003; Page A22

  EVIAN, France, June 3 -- From the beginning, this Group of Eight summit of world leaders had been heavily scripted to showcase French President Jacques Chirac as the rich world's best advocate for the concerns of poor, developing countries.

Chirac loaded the agenda with his favored topics -- aid to Africa, famine relief, more funding for fighting AIDS and easier access for poor countries to cheap drugs. He developed a proposal to suspend export subsidies on European farm products sent to Africa on the grounds that they hurt farmers there. And for the first time he invited leaders of 11 other countries to sit around the table, including the presidents of South Africa, Senegal, Nigeria and Algeria, representing the developing world.

But at the summit's end, the final statement looked more like it could have been drafted by the White House than by Chirac's Elysee Palace. President Bush spent fewer hours here than any of the other G-8 leaders, but it was his imprint, not Chirac's, that was most evident.

The summit produced a strong U.S.-backed statement calling weapons of mass destruction the world's "preeminent threat," as well as a tough warning to Iran about its weapons program, which one U.S. official said could be used as a basis for military action. An "action plan on health" stripped out all of Chirac's proposals on providing cheaper generic drugs to poor countries because of Bush administration objections. Chirac's idea of suspending export subsidies on products sent to Africa was also quietly dropped.

"We haven't made as much progress on this as I had hoped" regarding the farm subsidy suspension, Chirac conceded at the end of the session today.

Many of the activist groups observing this summit criticized Bush for hijacking the agenda, and they blamed Chirac for ultimately caving in on many of the issues he championed. "What you see here is that Bush's rules ruled -- even though he wasn't here," said Asia Russell of Health Global Access Project, an AIDS activist group. "And Chirac just rolled over."

But last month, it was Bush who set the AIDS agenda with a $15 billion pledge to fight the disease -- and essentially challenged Europeans and others to match it. Activist groups criticized the move as grandstanding, saying $5 billion of the $15 billion was old money, that the pledge was spread over five years and that the initiative should have been coordinated through the United Nations-endorsed Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which is facing financial shortfalls.

But Bush's pledge was enough to have Chirac, on the summit's first day, promising a tripling in France's contribution from 50 million euros (about $59 million) per year to 150 million euros ($177 million). He also said he would press the European Union to increase its contribution to combating AIDS.

"France totally approves of the American initiative," Chirac said. "France has decided to show the importance it gives to matching the American initiative." He added, "I think Europe will pick up the gauntlet."

The Bush-Chirac competition for leadership on development policy has been played out against the backdrop of their unresolved differences over the Iraq war.

Chirac's world vision, giving primacy to the United Nations and constraining U.S. power, has found a receptive audience in much of the developing world. Also, European leaders have constantly said that although they could not match U.S. military power, their higher levels of aid spent on development could give them commensurate clout in global affairs.

"There's certainly an amount of competition going on there," said Daniel Keohane, a research fellow with the London-based Center for European Reform. "It's one of those myths Europeans feel -- that we do more than the Americans." However, he added, "the Bush administration has been keen to show that Europe isn't as holy as they make themselves out to be on this issue."

Chirac "wants to be seen as the person the developing world can trust," Keohane said, noting the French leader's high-profile opposition to the U.S.-led war against Iraq. "But at the end of the day, he doesn't have the power to get everything he wants. I think the Bush team has played the Europeans masterfully over the last six months. The Bush team is just so good at dividing the Europeans that they always end up getting what they want."

The United States and its allies appear to have won another major victory here on the issue of arms proliferation and weapons of mass destruction. The Bush administration wanted the G-8 -- Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia, in addition to the United States and France -- to endorse a strong statement on the need to limit weapons proliferation. But France was reluctant to back any language that could be seen as giving retroactive legitimacy to the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq.

The final language was close to what the United States wanted, saying that weapons of mass destruction, together with terrorism, represented "the preeminent threat to international security" and listing "a range of tools available to tackle this threat."

The statement mentions export controls, diplomatic means and "if necessary other measures in accordance with international law." It also cites North Korea and Iran as countries pursuing nuclear weapons programs. Some officials said afterward that the wording leaves open the option of using force.

Chirac later called that "a very bold interpretation" of the final statement. Speaking specifically of the threat from the Tehran government's nuclear program, he said, "There never was any talk of using force whatsoever. We have to have a dialogue with Iran."

While Chirac and Bush made public peace -- with Bush giving Chirac a leather-bound collection of books on Native American culture and inviting him to drop by the White House in the fall -- Chirac showed today that he was in no mood to compromise on his opposition to the Iraq war.

In remarks to reporters, he again questioned the legality of the invasion of Iraq, saying, "All military action not backed by the U.N. is illegitimate and illegal."

"We haven't changed our view," Chirac said in response to a question. "I didn't approve and I still don't, and I said this yesterday to President Bush.

"Now we have to work together to get Iraq back on its feet," Chirac added. "You can make a war alone, but it is much more difficult to make peace alone."