Blair Wins Support From Putin on Africa Poverty, Climate Change

U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair won backing from Russian President Vladimir Putin for plans to put poverty relief in Africa and global climate change at the center of the agenda for the Group of Eight nations.

“We fully support the ideas put forward by the U.K. and the prime minister,” Putin said today after talks with Blair at the Russian leader’s dacha outside Moscow. Blair said, “There is a real prospect for progress on Africa and climate change” at the G- 8 summit in Scotland on July 6-8.